The Holidays Are Here to Remind Folks That Nope, Freelancing Isn't as Freeing as It Seems

(SPOT.ph) If there’s one sentiment that Pinoys from all walks of life can agree on, it’s that prices increase like crazy during the holidays. This year, however, it just reached a whole new level of absurd. Anywhere you go—from the corner store near your home all the way to the leading big-chain supermarkets, the picture it paints is clear as day. And it’s not limited to basic goods, even; clothes, gadgets, home furnishings, you name it—everything’s just too damn expensive. So how do we all keep up when our salaries don’t rise at the same rate? The answer is pretty obvious: we can’t.

It’s the reality most of us live in. With the recent multi-year lockdown, most have turned to taking on two jobs, mostly virtual, or perhaps frontliner-related, to keep up with the cost of living—but if there's one type of work that got the limelight during lockdown, it's got to be freelancing. The life of a digital nomad was glorified on basically every social media platform—behind all the work-from-beach pics and be-your-own-boss motivational quotes, though, there is the underlying factor of perpetual uncertainty. We can't even touch on what life was and continues to be like for Pinoys who eck out a living on the daily—isang kahig, isang tuka—but here's what we do know: those whose jobs aren’t tied to a desk, those whose livelihoods often run on creativity, don't have it all that grand. 

Also read: This Is What a Day in the Life of a Freelance Artist Is Like

Don't believe the social media posts

Freelancing used to be like the “unspoken sibling” of the labor sector—patiently and silently waiting in the shadows for their elder sibilings to call in case they needed something. Then came folks like events host-slash-radio DJ Debbie Then and fellow voice-actor and social-media queen Inka Magnaye, who found their respective voices and began sharing their stories on social media—who they are, what they do and why they do it—to a wider (highlight: younger) audience. These guys gave younger audiences something to aspire for—turning their passion into their life’s work; the kind that compensates them without having to deal with the pressures that usually come with the usual desk job; and most important of all, a greater sense of purpose in their lives. To have ambitions of this nature isn’t delusional at all; if these people could pull it off, they could, too, right? Sow the seeds now, reap the fruits tomorrow.

Social media has done such a great job of putting the spotlight on what the business sector calls the gig economy, depicting how a lot of us were able to make it through the worst parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when layoffs were happening left and right, those affected were left with no choice but to get creative to generate the income they needed to survive. Retrenched employees upped the entrepreneurial ante and started small businesses, selling products covering the whole nine yards—food, apparel, art, you name it. And because we’re very well aware that income isn’t stable, we needed to pull muscle in order to make sure that somehow, we would be able to put food on the table for our families regularly—a truth that freelancers we're already living way before the pandemic even began.

If you ask me, though, this attention has slowly reached—if it hasn't already—levels that make it dangerously close to being put on a pedestal, not just by audiences, but to a certain extent, also by the very freelancers themselves. The nature of our work has become so glorified that people tend to forget that it goes beyond pursuing your passions and getting paid good money for it. Just like any other job in the world, it’s not always a bed of roses; in fact, it often tends to feel more like a bed of thorns.

What working as a freelancer in the entertainment industry is really like

I’m lucky enough to have one foot planted on solid ground—being an ex-radio DJ-slash-ex-advertising creative-turned-senior high school media teacher—and the other rested on a relatively-stable surface—having worked as a dubbing scriptwriter/adapter and occasional voiceover artist for the last 12 years and counting. While teaching offers me the stability I need as someone who’s been married only over a year, it’s really the dubbing/VO work that fills my creative tank and keeps my brain running on overdrive. As a voice talent, I get to enjoy the work-life balance that seems so elusive to many. I get the benefit of being able to record my lines either with the stability of studio infrastructure or from the comfort of my own home with my own equipment—whichever works better for me, and as agreed upon by the client. Now provided I do get work, and finish it, as soon as I’m done with the final output, the waiting game for the talent fees begin—and end three months later, on average. That’s the cycle I started with way back in 2010; that’s pretty much how it still is today.

With people coming in to try the freelancing life themselves, it may be a bit of a shock to realize it isn't at all how social media paints it to be. The first issue people typically encounter when they start freelancing is a bit of a catch 22—you can't get a gig with an empty portfolio and you can't fill up your portfolio without said gigs. For those just getting on, it may start off as an x-deal; the much-memed "exposure" type of "payment." And as you gradually build your body of work, you accept what is offered, not even bothering to negotiate your worth because you're just thankful to get one foot in the door of your newly-minted dream.

Your experience and credibility both widen the more projects you take on, so with an empty portfolio, you wouldn’t even be given the light of day. And even if you have solid experience—and if you’ve worked enough, mastery of your craft—it’s still not an assurance that you will be an immediate shoo-in nor is it a guarantee that you’ll get your next big project right after your last one ends. You will always have to prove to potential clients that you’re more than capable of the task at hand. Believe me; it will take a long time before you even get considered to do a project.

The uncertainty begins right there. We freelancers are paid on a per-project basis, so we need a constant flow of gigs. We consider ourselves lucky if a client hires us to work for extended periods because that will mean survival for as long as the project is ongoing. What comes after? Well, we've got a cross-the-bridge-when-we-get-there mentality, if we get there.

Sure, more companies now follow their self-imposed policies regarding the settlement of professional and talent fees, but it can’t be denied that some still leave their hired freelancers hanging. How you ask? I got one word for you: delays. No professional talent, or really, anyone for that matter, looks forward to a message saying their paycheck has been delayed due to factors beyond their control.

At the most practical level, delays in payment force us to recalibrate household budgets, making them last until clients tell us that our fees have already been disbursed. In this case, what happens when we max out despite our best efforts to stay within budget? Nothing. Until our checks are issued, we’re all left a bunch of sitting ducks. But hey, it does happen—a lot, even. And sometimes, it happens right around the holidays.

I just thank my lucky stars for two things: I have a day job that allows me to tide things over while waiting to get paid, and my wife has her own income. Combining our respective salaries makes budgeting less volatile, but it doesn’t change the fact that when the holidays come, it can become just one step short of a Herculean task to do so. When even the price of fruit cocktail is jacked up, every little penny counts. 

Then there’s the perennial problem of talent fee rates remaining stagnant amid increasing prices. Heck, even salary rates can pretty much remain the same throughout the years—but when even your next project isn't certain, the worry hits differently. In most cases, we feel pressure to take on more work than we can usually handle just to be able to keep up with the volatility of the economy.

Keep on keeping on

One of the more painful things I was told as a full-time freelancer was that I won’t amount to anything pursuing it. I know for a fact that they were wrong because I’ve experienced first-hand how freelancing gigs—especially when taken/delivered in bulk—can get you the bacon, so to speak. I even managed to put myself through my last semester of university thanks to accumulated talent fees from my voice-over work. While it’s everything but true, hearing it being said and realizing that they truly believed it, was very insulting, both professionally and personally.

I’ve seen both good and bad seasons as a freelancer. Every so often, I find myself surprised that things are going so well, with a steady stream of projects bombarding my calendar—this is the side I see touted around online. Then again, I also find myself at wit’s end, scraping the bottom of the pot and saving every peso I can find just to be able to make it to the next big payout—the non-glorified part you rarely see talked about. 

Freelancing is a roller coaster ride of emotions; one moment you’re up, and the next, you’re down. And with the holidays upon us and the ever-increasing economic volatility, it feels like my ride is currently on both. Add in all the buzz on social media and it can get pretty smarting. Every project we do is deeply personal, and we exhaust our time and effort—even the limits of our creativity—not just to get it done, but to get it done excellently; even just a little more financial affirmation for our work would be very much appreciated. Or if we can't get actual proper rates just yet, then a few more truthful Instagram posts would work as a fine Christmas gift, too. 

Tricco Yumul is a high-school teacher, and dubbing scriptwriter and voice actor.