One match strike from burnout… why do freelancers struggle to take time off when they need it?
‘How are you’, asked my friend and fellow health copywriter, Louise, when she called me yesterday. ‘Tired’, I replied. Sound familiar?
I’ve seen a lot just lately about how many freelancers are feeling tired and unmotivated and yesterday, I could totally relate. I had fairly simple and straightforward blog content to write but getting words out of my brain and onto the screen was like trying to wade through waist-deep treacle. I sometimes feel like I’m just one match strike away from burnout, yet I can’t seem to stop working. And I’m not alone. Just this morning I have seen a tweet from the awesome Kat Boogard saying the same thing. It doesn’t seem to matter how busy our planners get, or how much our brains protest, turning down work seems virtually impossible.
Louise asked me yesterday when I last took time off. Proper time off – as in a week of NO work whatsoever. When I sat and thought about it, I realised that the last time I took a week off of work was in August 2019! 20 months ago. TWENTY. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a couple of long weekends where I haven’t done any work, and a few odd days off here and there, but not a definitive, work-brain off break for longer than I care to admit!
Why? Why have I not taken time off? It got me thinking, and so I decided to write this blog looking at some of the reasons why many of us just don’t take the time off that we need and deserve.
FOMO
FOMO – fear of missing out – is one of the main reasons I struggle to turn down work. I don’t want to say no to a potentially big, exciting project or client. My curiosity of the unknown definitely gets to me. Another problem is that if you say no to an enquiry and they go off and find another freelancer, unless that freelancer isn’t the right match for them or does a piss poor job of the work (it happens!) it’s highly likely that you won’t hear from them again.
Letting people down
Maybe it’s because I am naturally a people-pleaser and this is something I know is to my own detriment sometimes, but I hate letting people down. And that means that if someone comes to me for content, especially if they have been referred to me, I hate to say no. I’ll always try and see if I can do the project at a later date, but if I can’t then I’ll normally try and squeeze it in somewhere. Who needs sleep, right?
Money money money
Just in case anyone is still under the illusions that freelancers can pay their rent/mortgage/bills with exposures, we can’t. The fact is that as much as we may love what we do, we need it pay our way in life. More specifically, like many other parents I have had my children home for a large part of the last 12 months, and it’s reflected in the cost my weekly shop. Apparently, anything less than 9 meals a day is starvation for kids, so every word I write goes some way to keeping the little darlings in Hula Hoops, crackers and bacon rolls.
Also, to add, freelancers don’t get holiday pay. So, while it may not seem a big deal for the employed to take a week off since they’ll get paid the same amount at the end of the month, freelancers are facing a potential 25% drop in their pay for doing the same. My husband is also self-employed, so we face a double-whammy of this each time we go away.
There’s sod all to do anyway
For most of the last year, there’s been very little reason to take much time off anyway. We haven’t been able to travel much. Our usual family holidays for 2020 were cancelled and as someone who was classed as clinically extremely vulnerable during the pandemic, I spent most of the last year ‘shielding’. There really wasn’t anywhere to go or much to do anyway. So, I figured I may as well work and earn money instead – to hopefully pay for all the fun I plan to have as soon as we are allowed to!
You may have got to this part of the blog and think I’m going to share some secret solution for scheduling in time off and avoiding burn out. Sorry to disappoint. Even after six years freelancing, I still don’t have everything figured out, including how to successfully take a step back when it gets too much. The one thing I do know is I’ve taken my foot off the gas a little in terms of marketing myself. I haven’t created a lot of my own content lately, and I’m not actively pursuing every potential opportunity I see out there – even though it goes against my natural instincts.
For me personally, I need to actually leave my home to take a break from work. And ideally, not just my home, but the country too. The only time we (hubby and I) feel truly relaxed is when we are ‘away away’… like ‘out, out’ but usually with tapas and wine and a Mallorcan sunset. If Boris allows it, we’ve got a week booked in our favourite place in the not-too-distant future and it can’t come fast enough. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll be doing everything I can to try and take a step back from work for at least a few days anyway …. at least until another project rolls in!