Nowadays many people choose to be self-employed, rather than work for a company or organisation. Why might this be the case? What could be the disadvantages of being self-employed?

The rising tide of slashers is sweeping across the city. More and more

people

decide to become self-employed

workers

due to

eagerness for a work-life balance of living style and the increase in self-employment-related work.

While

there are many reasons that can be explained for

this

phenomenon, never should we overlook the drawbacks of being self-employed. Of all the reasons why

people

want to be self-employed, the foremost reason is that they are willing to have a work-life balanced living spirit. In a metropolitan city, like Hong Kong, long working hours are not an uncommon issue. As a full-time employee, you must follow the guidelines which set up by the company and

thus

you don’t have any freedom. After being employed, you will become a boss of your own.

Therefore

, you can decide the task you want to do and organise your working plan

according to

your own situation. Despite the flexible working plans, the increasing trend of self-employer

jobs

is

also

another reason for

this

phenomenon. Over the past three years of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the city has shut down

due to

the restricted policy. Many companies have adopted the work-from-home policy and even renew employee contracts as self-employed in order to cut costs.

For example

, the well-known technology company, Microsoft, found that they would amend the policy, which allows their employees to choose to work at home. It

also

increases the employment of freelancers

instead

of full-time

workers

. In

this

way

, more

people

would like to enjoy a flexible living pattern and the increase in self-employed

workers

.

Nonetheless

, the increase in self-employment will trigger many drawbacks.

First,

it is unstable for the employee to earn a living since freelancers’

income

depends on how many

jobs

they can apply for.

Hence

, they face many uncertainties in their earnings. The delivery job is a case in point. The delivery

workers

receive the transportation fee from the users. If the users don’t use the delivery service, their

income

will relatively lower.

Moreover

, freelance

jobs

’ payment patterns may be flexible, which means need to wait a long time to receive the full rewards,

such

as design

jobs

. The designers may only receive 10-20% of the total amount for deposit, but they in turn cannot receive the full salary after the task has been over. In

this

way

, it is indicated that many are uncertain about the salary earned by freelancers. Never should we overlook that self-employed

people

may change

jobs

frequently, and they may not develop professional skill sets. Since some of the professional skills need to have long-term practical practices, the employer may concern that their employment status is not stable enough.

Therefore

, they may lose chances for promotion to a more professional team and receive a vulnerable amount of

income

.

For example

, there are self-employed teachers, whose salaries are much less than theirs and cannot receive any training provided by the government and schools. In

this

way

, self-employed

workers

lose their competitiveness in the business market, compare to full-time

workers

. Under

this

line of thinking,

due to

the chasing for a work-life balance living

way

and the increasing number of freelance

jobs

in pro Covid-19 period, there are more

people

changing to being self-employed.

However

, freelancers still face a lot of uncertainties, including

income

and career path, and even may lose their competitiveness in the job market.

Therefore

,

people

should have full consideration and think deeply before they choose to be self-employed.