Re:Fulfilling the promise of an officeless world
by potatolicious on Wednesday April 10, 2013 @01:17AM
(#5523344)
Flexible sure, but not efficient. There's no way freelancing is overall a more efficient allocation of labor than employment.
The problem is that in freelance you're getting a bunch of specialized labor to spend a considerable portion of their time performing a non-productive task: i.e., sales.
This is suboptimal use of time for the worker, since those hours aren't billable. This is suboptimal use of time for the employer, since evaluating bids and candidates isn't free either.
In cases where the employer does not have enough work to justify a full-time hire, this is an acceptable cost of doing business in order for the work to be done. It doesn't scale beyond this group though.
Having a bunch of engineers spend a significant portion of their time performing salesmanship rather than engineering is very inefficient, though it may achieve locally optimal results for the individual if you account for flexibility.
The problem is that in freelance you're getting a bunch of specialized labor to spend a considerable portion of their time performing a non-productive task: i.e., sales.
This is suboptimal use of time for the worker, since those hours aren't billable. This is suboptimal use of time for the employer, since evaluating bids and candidates isn't free either.
In cases where the employer does not have enough work to justify a full-time hire, this is an acceptable cost of doing business in order for the work to be done. It doesn't scale beyond this group though.
Having a bunch of engineers spend a significant portion of their time performing salesmanship rather than engineering is very inefficient, though it may achieve locally optimal results for the individual if you account for flexibility.