11–20 of 96 posts
There are also patterns where freelancers are more desirable early on in an economic recovery, e.g. the company thinks it might be safe to start hiring again but is not feeling quite confident enough to take on full time staff (cost of firing etc.)
Working 20 hours more for a lot more money? You're on the verge of inventing the U.S. labor market, think carefully about your next decision.
There’s a whole world of unintuitive reasons for this kind of thing. Non-exhaustive list: - Freelancers are OpEx, FTEs are CapEx. They are usually separate budgets so departments split. - They want to maintain good relationships with the freelance companies in case they need to spin up staffing quickly with top talent in the future. - They don’t have to pay some benefits and taxes on freelancers. - Freelancers and co…
> I know that as an employee my 30 euro's is actually "more" due to vacation and pension, etc. but it's nowhere near 150 euro's How big is the difference? How much does it cost to fire you?
Is there still a difference? yes, that is the risk contractors take. I agree that it can be weird for companies to have contractors in the same role for years on end, but I have also seen one or two contractors effectively doing 80% of all the relevant work in a 15 man team. Major incident? Contractors in the warroom. Coming up with a new architecture? Contractors. etc. etc.
Do not get me wrong I have also seen it the other way around, that definitely happens, but I have also talked with tons of employees, and 9 out of 10, when pressed, do not become a contractor. They value the "stability" of the employment too much, or are simply too risk averse or afraid of running a small business by themselves. The ones that did make the jump are often very happy once they settle in and of course, financial security varies a ton between people. Parents, kids, nest egg, health, it all plays a role.
But employees complaining about contractors, and the difference between their salary and a contractors invoice... what is holding you back? I also find it funny that OP mentions he would like to freelance extra hours at his current employer. Just make those extra hours (or all your hours) somewhere else. You are not married to a company, especially not an F500 one. Those will lay you off without hesitance when deemed necessary, and typically find the limits of the law to do so.
There’s a whole world of unintuitive reasons for this kind of thing. Non-exhaustive list: - Freelancers are OpEx, FTEs are CapEx. They are usually separate budgets so departments split. - They want to maintain good relationships with the freelance companies in case they need to spin up staffing quickly with top talent in the future. - They don’t have to pay some benefits and taxes on freelancers. - Freelancers and co…
> Freelancers are OpEx, FTEs are CapEx I don’t think this is true unless simply make up your own definition of CapEx. “Examples of OpEx include employee salaries, rent, utilities, and property taxes.” https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/112814/whats-differ... (Yes there are some times when you may be able to capitalize some labor, but that would apply to freelancers as well and is very much the exception, not th…
A freelancer can actually only work around 10 months per year. 1-2 weeks are national holidays, 4-6 weeks is holiday, 1-2 weeks sick leave.
Freelancers also only get paid when there is work to be done. There are gaps between projects that need to be included in the hourly rate. Training is done unpaid. Freelancers usually also provide some flexibility to the customer: the project is cancelled by the end of next week, the freelancer doesn't have to be paid anymore. Terminating a regular employee probably comes with a severance package of 2-6 monthly salaries, and maybe even a legal dispute.
Edit: Also hiring freelancers is much easier. Just hire them and fire them if they don't do their job as good as expected at any time. With employees it's more difficult to fire them if they don't perform as well as expected, but don't behave in bad faith.
Contractors get paid for the time they're not in work.
I've been on both sides and have always been lucky in that I've gone from contract to contract but that is certainly not guaranteed.