Temporary agency work or an independent freelance practice
Temporary agency employment and an independent freelance practice offer different combinations of control, business responsibility and continuity of work. The choice depends on career stage, personal circumstances and willingness to run a business.
Control of work and business decisions
A self-employed consultant makes the business decisions, including the following.
- Develop and write a business plan.
- Hire consultants, advisers and subcontractors as appropriate.
- Dismiss people whose performance is inadequate.
- Determine working hours.
- Work in the way that suits the consultant.
- Accept suitable projects and decline those that do not fit the business strategy.
- Manage tax strategies.
Independent practice also allows the writer to set fees and choose when to take holidays.
The client engages a consultant with greater responsibility and independence than a temporary employee. Project-based engagements end when the project is finished, unless the consultant has a longer-term retainer arrangement.
In temporary agency employment, the agency pays the writer and handles time cards and billing, while the writer may report to a client project manager. The client directs how the time is spent and can assign other tasks during project downtime; one experienced consultant described these bookings as generally 40 hours a week for the booked period. Some agencies provide benefits and others do not. That consultant regarded the agency's distance from the work and limited medical-writing knowledge as disadvantages, along with reduced control and possible resentment from permanent employees if temporary staff earn more.
One freelancer's list of independent working advantages sets out what they would miss in temporary employment.
- Determining working hours.
- Working from home.
- Turning down unwanted work.
- Ending relationships with difficult clients.
- Charging for value rather than time.
- Earning more than an employer would pay.
- Having a continuing, overlapping flow of new work.
Administration, income and continuity
Temporary agency work can remove many administrative burdens and income-generation risks, provide relatively regular pay, and build paid experience and a portfolio. An agency also supplies contacts and has a financial interest in the writer's success, with a regular pay cheque while the assignment lasts.
One consultant identifies two advantages of long-term temporary employment.
- No need to market services or spend time on non-billable business tasks.
- Greater security from long-term full-time contracts, especially when registered with two or more staffing agencies.
Both arrangements still involve uncertainty. One experienced consultant considers independent freelancing capable of producing higher earnings and more income to keep, but with stress that may outweigh the financial benefit for some people.
Working inside a client's organisation
After 20 years in a medical research institution and a study break, one writer moved into a temporary pharmaceutical-company role through a professional-association contact. The move replaced a private office and cooperative management with an open cubicle, competing departments and inconsistent instructions across an international group, but brought much higher pay than research institutions offered. The writer valued the comfort of a long-term institutional position while still welcoming the opportunity to move.
Another consultant worked two weeks each month in a client's office for 18 months, remaining independent and receiving $100 an hour plus reasonable expenses. Expecting to bill eight hours a day, the consultant instead found meetings, internal email, politics and peer conversations so unpleasant that they stayed and billed only six hours, using the remaining time productively at the hotel. The same consultant recognised that other writers could value the colleagues and meetings, and that independent consultants could use downtime for their own marketing, selling and administration.
Preferences and career stage
Independent practice can be rewarding for an experienced writer with established contacts, a reputation for quality and reliability, and awareness of its pitfalls. Temporary employment may suit writers who prefer less business responsibility, dislike marketing or find the ambiguity and risk of self-employment difficult. Writers who enjoy uncertainty, change and personal control may prefer independent practice; neither arrangement is inherently superior in one experienced consultant's view.