I have been following the conversation by @cpappas 10 Advantages to Becoming an eLearning Freelancer:
http://elearningindustry.com/10-advantages-becoming-elearning-freelancer
and the follow up rebuttal post by Jason Fletcher on the ELNet Site:
http://elnet.com.au/index.php/news/blog/entry/10-disadvantages-of-being-an-e-learning-consultant
And I realised one thing:
How great and liberating it feels to be free.
Yes Mr. Fletcher I do my own cleaning, my own accounts and I even make my own coffee but you know what I am FREE !
I have gone from 15 phone hook up meetings a week to maybe three (and that is my choosing).
I have gone from 30 min lunch break to watching FOX SPORTS lunch time wrap for one hour.
I have gone from travelling to Canberra in the middle of June to sleeping in and hearing the airport fog report and freeway chaos on the radio.
I have gone from having numerous staff reporting to me to my wife asking me if I got to do the washing today.
I have gone from sleepless nights to staying up all night watching the FIFA World Cup
I have gone from 8 Aspirin a week to one a month.
Yes Mr. Fletcher the pay is not as good, yes you do miss the social interaction but do I miss it overall – NO WAY.
For now I will relax, review , explore my horizon, explore the opportunities that may present themselves, develop my skills, network with my peers, do the laundry and enjoy a break.
One thing is for sure – I don’t miss those Tuesdays where I went from a 9:00 a.m. phone meeting right thru to 3:30 p.m. phone meeting with a 30 min break for lunch and toilet – no Mr Fletcher that I don’t miss.
Follow your dream!
LearnKotch 
Con, I have to agree, well at least to some extent, having moved away from the high stress corporate role I was previously in, into a role with much less stress, more flexibility, the ability to and latitude to create my vision and space to work as a consultant as well, I have to admit I am much happier. What is interesting is that I don’t think I realised how stressful, although satisfying what I was doing was and am glad I have escaped to a more sensible and life friendly environment. I also don’t miss the meeting that went from 9-3 or the meetings to set agenda’s for other meetings.
Enjoy yourself and have fun
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Thanks for your support Paul. Yes it is that “liberating” feeling you get when you leave one long term role for something completely different. I am sure the opportunities will come and when they do I will be refreshed and ready to go!
Looks like you are enjoying your new role and good on you – you worked hard and you deserve to be happy in a role that you can feel comfortable in.
Cheers
Con
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I had to chuckle with this post but good on Jason for writing the other side. Yes, there are always two sides to every coin. Now that I’m in the freelancing mode, in all honesty, it’s bloody scary. I’ve always had a job, an organisation structure and a fortnightly wage to fall back on but at the same time, with this comes the fact that the organisation “contracts” you to do what they want, when they want and how they want. Sure, we may have some liberty and influence but others don’t even have that and become stretched, tired, disengaged from their work. The reason I left permanent work to become a contract was that I didn’t want to deal with the constant stress, restructuring, political bickering and power plays – I just wanted to get on with the job.
But even as a contractor, I saw that this limited me because I did what they wanted me to do (because they paid me to do it). I was not in a position of influence to be able to provide guidance. Again, there’s a ‘contractual arrangement’ – I pay you ‘x’ to do ‘y’. My constant questions of ‘why do you think that y will solve your performance issue? Can we explore this a little more?” was not accepted because of the matter of the relationship you have with whoever is paying you for the service they need.
Now I’m willing to explore the life of a freelancer consultant. My main motivator is to just help learn so that they can apply this to their own contexts. It may be difficult because the ‘quick fix and cheaper option’ will be the default and if they come into that consulting relationship with the lens of “you will design and develop my training course in XYZ format” then this is where you need to be clear about the value – and solve a business problem they didn’t know they had. Starting from them as the first point! 🙂
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