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RTÉ News
5 days ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
'It's exhausting': the many career challenges facing freelancers
Analysis: Cultural, media and creative industries rely heavily on freelancers, but there are downsides to this form of working life By Heidi Ashton, University of Warwick If you're a freelancer, you know there are many perks to how you make a living. For some, this includes being free to work when and how you please, setting your own rates, and being your own boss. But you also know there are downsides to this form of working life. And if you're plotting your path towards going freelance, you'll want to consider both the good and the bad aspects. While some people want to work on a freelance basis, others – by virtue of the industry they are in – have less choice. The cultural and creative industries rely heavily on a flexible, skilled freelance workforce. Many of these freelancers work from project to project with no single workplace, which can lead to challenges. Over the last decade or so, I have researched freelance work and freelance workers in the cultural and creative industries, examining their experiences and understanding how these are shaped by structural and political forces. From RTÉ 2fm's Louise McSharry Show in 2021, profile of Minding Creative Minds, an organisation providing free 24/7 support, from legal assistance to life coaching, to anyone who needs it within the creative industries Freelancers often rely on their reputation or word-of-mouth to gain future work. This can be helpful: a good reputation can lead to recommendations and repeat work. Equally, it can mean that freelancers do not always report poor practices and behaviour, especially early in their career. "You don't want to be seen as a troublemaker," a freelancer in my ongoing research said in 2023. Reports on creative industry sub-sectors such as in TV, film and theatre show that freelancers are unlikely to speak out when facing or witnessing bullying behaviour. "People are frightened to reveal themselves, because they think they'll be blacklisted and won't get jobs if they report bullies at work," film director Brian Hill has explained. What's more, the labour markets in which freelancers work can include multiple layers of hidden hierarchy. Freelancers and sub-contractors can be employed to hire the freelancers below them. This may make it extremely difficult to report up to managers who could take appropriate action, even when the problematic behaviour relates to protected characteristics such as race, disability or pregnancy. Fear of causing trouble, coupled with the need to please, can also lead to exploitation. Facing exploitation Despite the practice being technically illegal, many freelance workers in the cultural and creative sectors do work for free. This is either to get a foot in the door, or to please those employing them by doing additional work. Freelancers often also wait long periods for payment – or may end up not being paid for their work at all. "Late, delayed and non-payments mean I am generally out of pocket for the work that I do," one freelancer told me. Unions can be very helpful in these cases, but the intensely competitive nature of this kind of work can also mean workers take lower fees initially, hoping they will increase. Careers and wellbeing Unlike structured employment, where workers can have access to training and opportunities for promotion either within or between organisations, freelance workers often have less clearcut means for progression. "You have to take the work that's there at whatever level it is. You can risk turning something down and waiting for something better but then you could end up with nothing," a freelancer I spoke to for my PhD research said. It can be difficult for freelancers to build contacts at higher levels, particularly when the person employing them directly is also a freelancer and therefore may perceive any relationship building above them as a threat to their future employment. The accumulated impact on mental health can be significant A common area of concern for young freelancers is the precarity and financial insecurity of their work. They may need to juggle multiple jobs and roles. Freelancers also lack holiday pay or regular working hours, as well as support for periods of under-employment. This can lead to increased stress and burnout for those who do not have other means of financial support. "I have multiple side-hustles ... It's exhausting," one freelancer said. The accumulated impact on mental health can be significant. The Film and TV Charity, an independent charity for those working behind the scenes, found that 64% of workers in the sector were considering leaving due to poor mental health – with freelancers and younger age groups particularly vulnerable. Having a mentor or someone who genuinely wants to support you and your career can help, as do communities of workers and unions providing support of various kinds. Anonymous reporting can be used to hold people and organisations to account for poor behaviour. For many of the freelancers I work with, though, it's worth it. There's a collective sense that, although it's tough, they wouldn't want to do any other job.
RTÉ News
12-08-2025
- Lifestyle
- RTÉ News
Are you having an early mid-life crisis?
Here's why so many young people in their 20s and 30s say they're experiencing a 'quarter life crisis' We are all familiar with the term 'midlife crisis'. It's often joked about in films and TV, but recent studies found 38% of people in their mid-twenties and early thirties are experiencing what they themselves are calling a midlife crisis. But how can this be and what does it mean? Behavioural psychologist Pádraig Walsh joined RTÉ 2FM 's Emma Power to talk it through. (This piece includes excerpts from the conversation which have been edited for length and clarity - you can hear the discussion in full below). The mid-life crisis stereotype is a lad in his 50s ditching the family for a red sports car. Is that a myth or a fact? " James Bond and Thelma and Louise have so much to answer for! That idea of just taking off in your sports car was so alluring, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, where people predominantly had their life course set out by their late twenties, but that isn't really backed up by research. Most people kind of go through a period of transition, so it's more Hollywood than psychology. What you have is people being really interested in this idea of throwing it all away. In reality, most of us tend to make those slight transitions as we go through life." From RTÉ 2FM Morning with Laura Fox, behavioural psychologist Pádraig Walsh on the early mid-life crisis Do we have more choice and freedom to try different things now? We do - and that can be a blessing and a curse. "There's the whole concept we use in psychology of the paradox of choice. So if you go onto Netflix and you have no guiding light whatsoever, if there's no pathway set out, you're going to spend all your time scrolling through stuff without actually selecting a movie. "The idea of having too much choice can paralyse us so it's nice quite often to have some sort of guiding path for us, some rules of thumb that kind of make life a little bit simpler. But if we stay too close to those and we don't tune into, well, actually what is it that I really want for myself? That's when it can get tricky and difficult. So we do have more choice now, but sometimes we have to be really conscious of how we navigate those choices." What might people be experiencing during a quarter life crisis? "There's some really interesting research coming out about this idea of a 'quarter life crisis'. People in their early-mid twenties going 'you know what? I have tried to follow the rules here, I have been told to study hard, work hard, get a qualification, and live my life by certain rules that were laid down to me, and now suddenly I have no stake in society. I am not able to afford somewhere to live, I'm not even able to afford somewhere to rent. I'm left with really difficult choices here.' From RTÉ 2fm's Louise McSharry Show in 2020, career psychologist Sinéad Brady on the quarter life crisis "In the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s, there would've been difficulties getting a job and people would emigrate for that. Now, we have almost full employment in Ireland, but it's very, very difficult to get accommodation that's affordable so you have this gap between what people are earning and what they can actually afford. This makes people go 'well, what's this all about?' "And that's what a midlife crisis really is, that point where you're going o reevaluate things and make an adjustment. If I don't have a stake in society, if I feel like the rules, the social contract, has somewhat been broken, then we're going to have to really lean into this idea of change or a crisis". Can we see this in pop culture? " CMAT 's Euro-Country is a good example. She is talking about her experience as somebody from Gen Z reflecting on the financial crisis. A lot of the narrative was 'this bypassed the really young generation". She's saying, absolutely not. We were surrounded by this worry, by this angst, if it was from our parents, and we weren't really sure what was happening. "You move forward from and suddenly we're into the likes of Covid and the cost of living and the housing crisis. Put all that together and the wild west of social media coming on stream in 2008 and 2009, and it just has really emphasised any angst, any kind of worries that somebody would've had. We're in the turbocharged comparison era. That can be really difficult if you're trying to navigate your twenties and figure out 'what am I doing?' Suddenly you're seeing somebody else getting on in life and that can amplify those feelings of inadequacy." How do we know the difference between a 'crisis' and normal feelings of young adulthood? "I suppose you take your evidence from other people and you go 'OK, well how do I feel in all of this? Am I comfortable in making these changes? Am I feeling grounded?' I use that term grounded a lot for ourselves, that somebody can live a life of their choosing where they have lots of different careers, live in lots of different places, have lots of different relationships, but they're fully grounded with that, that they feel OK - It's about feeling grounded in yourself and how do you feel? That idea of checking in on yourself and reflecting and going 'am I doing OK here?' A crisis is only a crisis if you label it one." From RTÉ Brainstorm, why micro-retirement has become a new workplace trend for Gen Z & millennials "There are no rules to life that say you have to have a relationship, a career or any of these other arbitrary markers in our life at a particular age. We have much more control than we had before, and we can make choices with that. Money gives us those choices. Money is that opportunity to give you self security or choice. But the cost of things versus the salary that you have can limit your choices or your sense of control and your feeling of having a stake in society. That's where the difficulty can land and where it can feel a little bit overwhelming or feel like tending towards a crisis." At what point should you reach out for some professional help? "If you are noticing it taking away from other aspects of your life. If this is consuming you, and you're noticing changes in yourself, or maybe you don't notice them yourself. One of the things about a crisis or burnout is that it's quite often somebody else who knows you very well who notices something in you and says 'maybe you need to seek some help for this'. Maybe you're noticing that it's taking away from other elements of your life and it's taking away from who you are. That's the point where you start to look for help."
