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According to the latest Word Audit Report carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (Jan 2012), the rise in self-employment is less down to a zeal for entrepreneurism, but more likely a desperate attempt to avoid unemployment.
Some of the findings of the report:
- By the spring of 2010 self-employment was higher than at the start of the recession in 2008 and by the autumn of 2011 had reached a record level of 4.14 million (14.2 per cent of total employment). At the latter date, the level of self-employment was 0.3 million (+8 per cent) higher than in spring 2008, compared with a corresponding fall of 0.7 million (-3 per cent) in the number of employees in work.
- The additional self-employed since 2008 are unlike self-employed people as a whole in terms of gender, hours of work, occupation and sector of employment.
- Although well over two thirds of self-employed people are men, women account for more than half (184,000, or 60 per nt) of the net rise in self-employment since the start of the recession.
- Whereas over two-thirds of self-employed people work more than 30 hours per week, almost 9 in 10 (88.8%) of the additional self-employed people since the start of the recession work less than 30 hours per week
- Almost a quarter of the UK’s self-employed people work in construction but the number of self-employed construction workers is currently lower than in 2008. By contrast, sectors with relatively small shares of self-employment – notably education, information and communications, financial and insurance services and public administration, defence and social security – are among those which have seen the biggest proportional increases in self-employment in recent years.
- Skilled trades-people – typified by ‘white van man’ – have the single largest share of self-employment (almost 30%) but account for less than 1 per cent of the net rise in self-employment since the start of the recession. People performing elementary (i.e. unskilled) occupations account for more than 20 per cent of the net increase, with those in administrative and secretarial and personal services occupations also registering large proportional increases.
Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the CIPD, said:
“The typical self-employed person in Britain today remains a skilled tradesman, manager or professional working long hours on the job, but since the start of the recession the ranks of the self-employed have been swelled by people from a much wider array of backgrounds and occupations, including many ‘handy-men’ without skills, picking-up whatever bits and pieces of work are available.
It’s good that these self-employed ‘odd jobbers’ are helping to keep the lid on unemployment in a very weak labour market but their emergence hardly suggests a surge in genuine entrepreneurial zeal. While some of these newly self-employed may make a long-term commitment to being their own boss, or at least gain the necessary experience to do so, it’s likely that most would take a job with an employer if only they could find one.”
A copy of “Work: The rise in self-employment” is available on request from the CIPD Press Office.
I personally disagree with the notion that self-employed people are desperate, unskilled and have no choice! In particular, the report has ignored the many of us who choose self-employment or freelancing as a viable means of flexible working. We’re self-employed by choice and helping to generate economic growth in the UK.
What’s your take on this. Do you agree with Dr. Philpott’s comment that newly self-employed people would most likely take a job with an employer if they could find one? What’s your experience of being self-employed? Love it, hate it, ready to jack it in?
I’d be interested in your comment.
Without a doubt, one of the first things you learn when you move from working in an office to working from home is that it’s a lonely life. If you’re used to the buzz of an office it can be hard to adjust to a new, solitary working day. Without regular periods of human interaction, depression can creep in and home workers often find they end up completely demotivated.
A 20-year study published in May 2011 by Tel Aviv University found that office workers with weak social interactions had a significantly higher mortality rate than those with stronger social ties. Also low levels of social engagement have been linked to dementia in later life.
It is easy as a home worker to let yourself slip into the life of a recluse and accept loneliness as a consequence of your lifestyle choice, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, getting out and socialising will improve your mental health and do wonders for your business too! Here are some ideas on how to boost your social life.
- If you think you are too busy working to have a social life then you’re just going to have to fit it in somewhere. Making time for friends and family is just as important to your success as the other things on your ‘to do’ list, so schedule it into your working week. Go out for dinner, or perhaps join working friends for lunch once a month. If there are friends who you only ever seem to converse with via email, try picking up the phone every now and then to have a proper catch up with a familiar voice.
- If you really think you can’t spend the time away from work then local business and networking groups are a guilt free way to socialise. They are a great way to meet like-minded people from the same, and different, industries so you can exchange ideas and hopefully get some new clients in the process. The Chamber of Commerce is a good starting point for finding networking events near you. To find details of your local Chamber visit www.britishchambers.org.uk.
- Hobbies and interests always have good scope for social interaction. Join the gym, a local sports team, knitting group, book club, or sign up for an evening class to meet like-minded people. Learning a new language or taking a computing course will also give you an extra skill for your business.
- If you are looking to widen your contacts across the country, then attending conferences or seminars in your field of expertise are a great way to achieve this.
- As a freelancing mum you are probably already in the very fortunate position of having a ready-made network of interesting women. I’ve found that children can also be great ice-breakers!
- If you have some time to spare and want to do something worthwhile in the pursuit of social interaction, why not volunteer with a charity? Charities are crying out for help and you could spend just a couple of hours a week doing something different and meeting new people. It also looks great on your CV!
- Co-working or office sharing is a great way to get that workplace camaraderie and banter back without having to resort to getting a ‘proper’ job. You could advertise for local home workers who may like to share an office, or perhaps you already know some freelancers who would make great co-workers?
If office sharing is not possible or not for you, it can break the solitude of the day to work for an hour or two in a local café. Many have free Wi-Fi these days and for the price of a couple of cups of coffee you can work uninterrupted while enjoying the bustle of human life around you. Sometimes you don’t even have to talk to people – it’s just nice to know they’re there!
One of my boys has a detention this week, for failing to hand in homework. Again. Really, he has no excuse. And I am at my wits’ end! It seems like the Homework Battle has been going on in my house for most of my parenting years, and I know that many other parents feel the same. 
Come to think of it, I used to have regular detentions for not handing in homework. It must be Karma out to get me!
How can parents help their kids to get homework done and handed in, and how will this help them to become better workers in the future? Our family already has most of the recommended tactics in place:
A designated homework time. I usually let my boys play and have supper before homework time. I am considering changing that, and having the boys do their homework the moment they come in from school, incorporating a snack. Perhaps they are too tired to work later in the day? A designated time helps everyone to focus and be better organized. They say that it takes three months for a habit to ‘stick’. I know that my mornings are definitely my habitual work times, when I focus best; if I am not working at nine o’clock I start to feel like something is amiss! And this is purely because I made myself work every morning, for months, until it became a habit.
All the required tools in one place. The kitchen/office is a good homework spot here. There are pens, paper and uncluttered spaces galore for working. I can get on with washing the dishes or chopping veg, while keeping an eagle eye on boys who would rather be painting one another with tip-ex than revising Latin or getting that project on the Civil War. Whoever is working in the kitchen, they can reach for a dictionary, a calculator or a thesaurus, which are all within arm’s reach.
I always try to remember that it’s not MY homework. It’s easy to make homework the parent’s responsibility, and spend hours nagging, looking over their shoulders, and making corrections. But that only teaches the child not to take responsibility for their actions (or non-actions). Getting a detention now for failing to hand in homework is a good thing, because later on, the stakes will be much higher. My son needs to live through the consequences of his disorganization and learn from them, so that hopefully he will be better organized in the future. If I don’t send in a freelance assignment when it is due, the repercussions will be worse than ‘Detention’!
Crime and Punishment? In general, I don’t punish. But I think the PS2 will be taking a time-out until I get a glowing report from my son’s teacher.
Obviously, my son needs more than just the time and space to get his work done. This week, I will be using more great freelancing tactics to help him: I’ll be researching online to find better methods for my son, and I’ll be asking the experts – His teachers, his dad, and other parents like you! Spill it, freelancers. How can I teach great work habits to my kids?
When I relocated from Surrey to north Norfolk five years ago, the magazine I was working on allowed me to keep my job but work remotely. I’d never really considered home working before but it struck me as a rather nice way of life. I loved everything about my job, especially my co-workers, so was glad that I wasn’t leaving the company. We were a small team of young women with similar interests and, while we worked hard, we had a good laugh in the office and saw each other socially once or twice a week.
I was excited about setting up my home office in the spare bedroom of our new house and for the first couple of months everything was great. I spoke to colleagues as often as I could over the telephone but soon found it wasn’t the same as exchanging banter across an office and I now lived too far away to join in their social plans. I worked the same long hours and began to notice that aside from walking the dog at lunchtime I rarely left the house. The village we lived in seemed nice but I didn’t know anyone who lived locally and had no opportunity to make new friends.
Very soon I began to feel cut off and when my elderly dog eventually passed away I had little reason to leave the house at all. I was miserable, lonely and lacking in motivation.
This all changed when I was offered some desk space in my husband’s office. The managing director had been a friend of ours for years and was happy for me to set myself up in the corner. Suddenly it was like the sun had come out from behind a cloud. Once again I was included in a tea-making rota and got to join in ‘water cooler chat’ despite my co-workers’ line of business being completely different to mine. I thrived and my work production increased as a result.
I then became pregnant and when my daughter was a year old I left full time employment in favour of freelancing. This greater flexibility meant that I didn’t need to be sat at my desk all day.
My daughter is now at pre-school three mornings a week and I actually look forward to the solitude and silence of working in the house on my own these days! However, I know that when she starts school I’ll be rethinking my working arrangements once again and probably looking for new co-workers.
Many jobs these days involve a laptop computer and little else so you can be completely portable and flexible. The great thing about co-working or office sharing is that you get to enjoy human company and all the buzz of a busy office without any of the politics that come with working for the same business. In fact, sharing with people from different occupations could bring the benefits of different viewpoints and you might be able to exchange skillsets. By being visible in a shared office and getting to know other professionals you are also likely to increase your chances of finding work.
If you don’t know of any other homeworkers, you might be able to find local desk spaces through the official co-working wiki at http://coworking.pbworks.com. The website also has a lot of useful information and links for people interested in trying out co-working.
Before Christmas a friend of mine, who runs her own cake business, was lamenting the fact that now she is self-employed she no longer gets to enjoy a work Christmas meal. We decided that next year we’ll get together with other self-employed friends and have a party of our own, celebrating the freedom and flexibility of working for yourself.
If you are a naturally sociable person who thrives on company it is definitely worth considering co-working or office sharing to save your sanity.
Karen
More and more women are taking the leap into freelancing in order to be more flexible with their time and to be there for their growing families. But what happens when a new baby comes along? Unless they are very organized, freelancers don’t often get great maternity pay. Home businesses can suffer and even fail if the boss takes six months or a year off. Sometimes, freelancers need to get back to work when their babies are very young.
If you need to work around your baby… or if you simply want to, there are a few things which can help to make it less stressful for you both.
Accept Help at Home: Yes, you can do it all. But it will soon stop being fun if you are the only one getting up at night, doing breakfast, dropping kids to school, freelancing, cleaning, helping with homework… Your body will soon begin to feel the effects of stress, and your kids will feel it too.
Use a Sling or Backpack: Babies love to be held, and we love to hold them. Babies who are held often cry less and have better motor skills than their peers, so strap your little one in a sling while you are on the move. When they are older, a backpack can be a great option. My middle boy spent a few hours every morning in a backpack as a toddler, while I stood and worked as a designer. He watched over my shoulder as I drew large tropical designs on tiles and he loved it. Now, he is a fabulous artist himself! Toddlers in a sturdy backpack have a grownups-eye view of the world and usually find it really interesting. If you get a backpack, make sure that it will distribute your toddler’s weight so as not to injure your back, and that your child can see over your shoulder.
Breastfeed: I harp on about this all the time. Once those first difficult and tiresome weeks are over and your breastfeeding technique is working for you and your baby, breastfeeding becomes an efficient, effective feeding method. You can take baby to your studio or home office with a spare nappy stuck in your purse, and work one-handed as you feed. Breastmilk is still the best food for babies. If you are having problems breastfeeding, it is worth it to get the help of a lactation consultant from the NCT or La Leche.
Give Up: Unless you have a housekeeper or a fabulous spouse who loves to dust and vacuum, forget about keeping your house spotless. Turn a blind eye to the cobwebs, and learn to live with that weird mark on the carpet. From time to time, you can do a blitz and really clean, with the help of older children armed with dusters. But day to day you will have to cut down to bare essentials cleaning: The kitchen, the bathroom and the clothes. Yes, the Lego and dog hair explosion CAN stay under the sofa until next weekend. Really. It’s not going anywhere.
Sleep: It’s boring, but a good night’s sleep is essential when you are burning the candle at both ends. Try to go to bed early, even if your favourite TV show is on late. You can always get the DVD once baby is older and you are sleeping through the night! Getting a little exercise in the afternoon may help you fall asleep, and in the morning you will have the energy to be supermom. If you can possibly make the time to nap during the day with your baby, a fifteen minute doze will make the evening routine easier for you.
Have a Moan, and a Laugh: An artist friend called me one day and announced that she had her Christmas cleaning and decorating completely sorted. “Good grief, how?” I squeaked. “Easy! If I just fling glitter and those little star thingies into all the corners, it will stick to the cobwebs, Right? Instant Christmas.” Brilliant, no? Of course, she did no such thing, but a good dose of sarcasm and a laugh with a friend was what we both needed at the time.
Remember, it Doesn’t Last: Kids grow up so quickly. Taking care of a baby is a 24-hour-a-day job, and there will be days when you despair that even the spiders have moved out because they can’t bear the dust. You may feel that your work is suffering and you will be exhausted for ever. But I can promise you that the little snuggler who insists on sleeping with his foot in your ear now, will one day be a helpful child who knows that he who vacuums the lounge and puts out the recycling gets extra computer time as a reward. It does get easier!
Have you got tips for busy working mums? Please share them with us in Comments!
