How to combat freelancer loneliness

When I first went free­lance, I was deter­mined to go it alone. In the begin­ning, this was empow­er­ing; I set my own hours, worked only with clients I want­ed to and gen­er­al­ly had more pro­fes­sion­al sat­is­fac­tion than I had in office jobs. The very sharp dou­ble-edged sword of work­ing for your­self, how­ev­er, is deal­ing with some­thing else that comes with work­ing on your own: lone­li­ness.

I notice that I’ll start to feel mis­er­able if I’ve been work­ing from home for a while

The self-employed sec­tor now accounts for near­ly 15 per cent of the UK’s work­force. As this group con­tin­ues to grow at an increas­ing pace – the num­ber of self-employed work­ers over the age of 65 has near­ly tripled since the reces­sion – the unique set of chal­lenges inde­pen­dent work­ers face need to be addressed, start­ing with free­lancer iso­la­tion.

How co-working spaces can combat loneliness

I’m not alone in feel­ing alone as a self-employed work­er; a 2018 sur­vey by Epson found that near­ly half (48 per cent) found it lone­ly. So I spoke to oth­er self-employed work­ers and indus­try experts to find out how free­lancers can solve lone­li­ness and iso­la­tion.

“Free­lanc­ing is a lib­er­at­ing and flex­i­ble way to work, but it’s not with­out its chal­lenges,” says Chloé Jepps, deputy head of research at the Asso­ci­a­tion of Inde­pen­dent Pro­fes­sion­als and the Self-Employed (IPSE).

Accord­ing to Ms Jepps, co-work­ing spaces can be a solu­tion for free­lancers who want to recap­ture the sup­port and cama­raderie of an office envi­ron­ment.

“Co-work­ing spaces are also a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for the fruit­ful col­lab­o­ra­tions that fuel the dynamism and cre­ativ­i­ty of the flex­i­ble econ­o­my,” she says.

Car­o­line McShane, inde­pen­dent social media con­sul­tant and mem­ber of Growth Hub in Cirences­ter, says: “We all sup­port each oth­er by act­ing as sound­ing boards or offer­ing advice when asked. I would go as far as to say there are more experts here than in any oth­er office or busi­ness I have worked in or for. I guess you could say we all work alone togeth­er.”

The impact of freelancer isolation on mental health

Find­ing a way to com­bat lone­li­ness is more than a pro­duc­tiv­i­ty issue, it’s also a press­ing men­tal health con­cern. Matthew Knight, inde­pen­dent strate­gist who works on free­lancer men­tal health cam­paigns, says: “While those who switch to a free­lance life gen­er­al­ly report they are hap­pi­er, it’s the unique set of chal­lenges a free­lancer faces that put inde­pen­dent work­ers more at risk of drop­ping into poor men­tal health.”

Mr Knight says that there are many small things which free­lancers can do that will not only help com­bat lone­li­ness, but also keep their men­tal health in shape. These include join­ing a com­mu­ni­ty, but also main­tain­ing a sched­ule that works for the indi­vid­ual, look­ing after phys­i­cal health and talk­ing to clients about the stress­es of free­lanc­ing.

“From reduc­ing your pay­ment terms or just let­ting you work from their space, there are plen­ty of things which those we work with can do to sup­port us,” he says.

Virtual spaces helping freelancers feel connected

Many sole traders and indi­vid­ual free­lancers, how­ev­er, don’t find co-work­ing spaces work for them. In fact, accord­ing to research from IPSE, 76 per cent of free­lancers have nev­er used a co-work­ing space. The asso­ci­a­tion believes this is an issue for gov­ern­ment to address.

“There are still nowhere near enough places for co-work­ing and gov­ern­ment must work to open more up,” says IPSE’s Ms Jepps. “The gov­ern­ment should extend rate relief to co-work­ing spaces and pub­li­cise unused build­ings where co-work­ing spaces could be cre­at­ed.”

Many free­lancers instead grav­i­tate towards vir­tu­al spaces to inter­act with one anoth­er. Mr Knight start­ed a Slack group called Leapers to “sup­port any­one who wants to work dif­fer­ent­ly”. Mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­brate each oth­er’s wins, and offer help and advice to one anoth­er.

I mod­er­ate a Face­book group for UK-based free­lance jour­nal­ists, which acts as a peer-to-peer sup­port group. It was through that group that free­lance jour­nal­ist Abby Young-Pow­ell start­ed hold­ing reg­u­lar meet-ups for Lon­don-based free­lancers to work togeth­er two days a week.

“What I miss most about being in an office is being socia­ble,” says Ms Young-Pow­ell. “Going for after­work drinks and hav­ing some­one to bounce ideas around with. I notice that I’ll start to feel mis­er­able if I’ve been work­ing from home for a while.”

The benefits of creating a freelance community

After post­ing on the Face­book group ask­ing if any­one want­ed to meet, she found a group of free­lancers who were keen to work togeth­er in venues such as the British Library and Bar­bi­can that allow free use of their space where indi­vid­u­als can work.

Mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty, which now also has a What­sApp group of 27 par­tic­i­pants, con­tin­ues to meet twice a week to work and socialise. “It’s inspir­ing to have a core group of peo­ple who are all doing inter­est­ing work, but also going through the same strug­gles,” she says.

Ms Young-Pow­ell’s tight-knit pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­ni­ty speaks to my own per­son­al favourite aspect of being self-employed: pick­ing your own col­leagues. I have a cou­ple of “work wives”, close friends whom I turn to for pro­fes­sion­al advice. They are all female friends who are in the same indus­try as me; we cel­e­brate each oth­er’s suc­cess­es togeth­er and coun­sel one anoth­er on any tricky sit­u­a­tions.

Whether it’s through on or offline com­mu­ni­ties, devel­op­ing pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships with peo­ple you’ve cho­sen to work along­side can make the iso­lat­ing busi­ness of work­ing for your­self feel less lone­ly.