In our current day and age, more and more people are making a living as freelancers and London is one of the places where this is happening at a fast pace. There are a number of obvious benefits of embracing the freelancer lifestyle. First of all you are your own boss and you keep all the profits of selling your labor. Add the flexible work hours and the possibility of choosing the clients you want and don’t want to work with and you get a pretty attractive prospect. People are also familiar with the cons like the lack of employee benefits and income insecurity, but those are not the most dangerous ones at all. Many freelancers are wising up to this and that is why coworking space London is becoming more and more popular. But let’s explain the connection in a bit more detail.
The Biggest Threat of Being a Freelancer
What freelancers risk the most is not financial; it’s their mental wellbeing. Most freelancers are actually prone to a special class of psychological issues.
Humans are a social animal and we have an inborn need to interact with other humans on regular basis. All of us need some kind of a social life and it’s actually harmful to us when we are derived from social interaction. While many freelancers love the idea of doing away with their daily commutes, not going to work can be psychologically detrimental. Most people view working in an office as a major annoyance, but it comes with a few benefits most of which unintentional. When one is forced to go to work on a regular basis, they are also forced to engage with other human beings even if their interactions might be unpleasant, annoying or boring. Even when office life is at its worst and the two most common office activities are backstabbing and gossiping, it still satisfies our primal need for human interaction.
When you become a freelancer, you are happy to get away from the typical work environment, but it often leads to psychological problems caused by insufficient human interaction. On top of this, freelancers are even more susceptible to psychological problems because they face more stress. The more obvious contributor to that would be the lack of financial and job security. In reality, that is an issue only in the beginning and dedicated freelancers soon find their niche and soon come to a point where finding work is not that big of an issue. What’s more stressful in the long run though, is the fact that you need to be your own boss and having flexible work hours. This sounds like freedom, but it actually means that you have more responsibility. If you don’t develop good mechanisms to separate your daily life from your work life, your stress levels are going to start climbing and you will soon be at least as stressed as you were in that cubicle.
The Solution
But a simple and effective solution exists and it’s to get the best of both worlds – coworking. This is when freelancers come to work under the same roof. This allows them to continue with their freelancing career but provides them with the social interaction and separation between home and work they so desperately need. If you are a freelancer, taking advantage of coworking space London will help you deal with all the adverse effects of freelancing, while taking advantage of all the benefits.
