In a post written in March of 2o1o on the blog site CurrentMom, a woman Freelancers lamented that she did not have “maternity leave” from her Freelancer job. She was offered a potentially good position regularly writing articles for a publication and lamented that she needed to make the decision whether to write the articles during her maternity time or pass up the opportunity. She lamented not having a “maternity leave” from her work as a Freelancer.
To say that you do not have a “maternity leave” from your position as a Freelancer is sort of wishing to have your things “both ways” if you will. The beauty of Freelancing is that you make your own schedules, work as little or as much as you wish and receive the wonderful benefits of choosing when you will have free time. By definition, having a paid “maternity leave” means that someone is “giving” you this time off and is paying you for that time. In that situation, this takes away the freedom that comes with Freelancing. If someone can “give” you the maternity leave then, by definition, they can “take it away”.
Part of the joy of Freelancing is the ability to choose one’s time; however that freedom comes with responsibilities. One is not “free” to yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater – if there is no fire. There are some responsibilities and curbs on one’s freedom that come with living in a large society. By the same token, there are responsibilities that come with the choices we make and one of them is that by choosing to work as a Freelancer, we do not have the “safety net” which an employer would “give” us with a maternity leave.
My suggestion for the mom in the story published above would be to look at it differently. By Freelancing, she is free to mold her schedule and her time around when her baby needs her. She does not have to leave the house and leave the baby with a baby sitter, drive downtown and punch in the clock. She can take the baby to the park in the morning and work on her Freelance project in the evening when the baby is taking a nap.
We on www.IndiaFreelancers.com certainly hope that our Freelancer moms enjoy the benefits of being able to set their own times and their own schedules by accepting only the jobs that they wish to accept on www.IndiaFreelancers.com.
Ranjiv P for IndiaFreelancers.com
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