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Considering tech workers only. If a substantial number of them moves from employment to self-employment, being someone's boss may become a better deal. If this

Considering tech workers only. If a substantial number of them moves from employment to self-employment, being someone's boss may become a better deal. If this trend is systemic: - The value of workers willing to be employed will increase, even more so in specific fields. Whatever the current compensation (dollars, flexibility,...), it's going to get better. - As this happens, some organizations won't accept to pay a premium for their existing pool of candidates and will expand their horizon to (finally) hire previously ignored populations. - Freelancing platforms will get even busier, and finding work will get harder and harder—especially now that these new self-employed workers compete with the entire world and not with other business units and colleagues. Many will come back from it. - When they do, their old job won't be available anymore. Getting a new one will be stressful due to the increased competition from all the disgruntled self-employed coming back and the increased pool of cheaper candidates now preferred by employers. I've personally made the employed → self-employed move about 3-4 years ago, and back. Although there are clear benefits to being self-employed, there are also clear ones to being a full-time employee (maybe this is more the case in Europe where I'm based, though). So, I can see why people make the move given the current context, but I can also see why a huge chunk will realize being your own boss is not necessarily as good as it sounds.

mcv 5y ago
I made the switch to self-employed in 2012. Then back to employment last year, during the Covid lockdown. And recently back to self-employed again. On the whole, I prefer the freedom of being self-employed, especially in regard to time off; I take take as much or as little time off as a want, whereas in employment, I'm limited to what my contract allows. Of course I can buy extra or have them paid out, but it's really the extra bureaucracy of working for a company that I dislike. Working for myself is easier. But another big difference I noticed is compensation: employment was a massive pay cut. And this seems consistent with previous experiences; Dutch employers just don't want to pay that much for software engineers. As a freelancer, it's easy to make 50% more. It's not an easy comparison because I also have to pay more taxes, save up for my own retirement, pay my own disability and other insurance that's normally taken care of by the employer, but even then, the difference is stark. If more people becoming self-employed means more employers will raise developer and other salaries, that would be awesome.

mcv 5y ago

I made the switch to self-employed in 2012. Then back to employment last year, during the Covid lockdown. And recently back to self-employed again. On the whole, I prefer the freedom of being self-employed, especially in regard to time off; I take take as much or as little time off as a want, whereas in employment, I'm limited to what my contract allows. Of course I can buy extra or have them paid out, but it's really the extra bureaucracy of working for a company that I dislike. Working for myself is easier. But another big difference I noticed is compensation: employment was a massive pay cut. And this seems consistent with previous experiences; Dutch employers just don't want to pay that much for software engineers. As a freelancer, it's easy to make 50% more. It's not an easy comparison because I also have to pay more taxes, save up for my own retirement, pay my own disability and other insurance that's normally taken care of by the employer, but even then, the difference is stark. If more people becoming self-employed means more employers will raise developer and other salaries, that would be awesome.