Lifestyle and Consumer Culture: “Freelance as a new form of lifestyle”

Hanna Nimchuk

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Freelance is an important element of the labour market today, contributing to its flexibility and reducing unemployment, especially among young people. At the same time, it is an innovative form of employment with a special mode of work, which operates for appropriate, objectively formed reasons and has all the conditions for its further development. The emergence of freelancers in society is driven by the growing need for professions in fields of information technologies, customer support, marketing, sales, design project management and others. There is no need for companies to hire full-time marketer, developer or accountant when it is better to have some employees for specific projects. There is a growing need for individuals who are ready to work creatively, temporarily and remotely. At the same time, freelancers do not need to spend full time in the office and they get an ability to work with clients from all over the world. In addition to that, there is an increasing number of those who are willing to strike a balance between work, life, family, leisure and study. Those people are the ones who choose freelance as an innovative form of employment. For more than a year already, a great influence on freelance has Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions related to it. It forces people to work remotely and seek for new income sources as companies cannot afford to keep all the employees and have to decrease the staff. In the thesis are examined important aspects of freelance as industry: positive and negative aspects of freelancing for both freelancers and customers, influence of Covid-19 pandemic on freelancers’ work and also there was completed a social portrait of a modern freelancer. The relevance of this topic is reinforced by the fact that every year the number of people engaged in such forms of self-employment as freelancing is steadily increasing.

Abstract:

Freelance is an important element of the labour market today, contributing to its flexibility and reducing unemployment, especially among young people. At the same time, it is an innovative form of employment with a special mode of work, which operates for appropriate, objectively formed reasons and has all the conditions for its further development. The emergence of freelancers in society is driven by the growing need for professions in fields of information technologies, customer support, marketing, sales, design project management and others. There is no need for companies to hire full-time marketer, developer or accountant when it is better to have some employees for specific projects. There is a growing need for individuals who are ready to work creatively, temporarily and remotely. At the same time, freelancers do not need to spend full time in the office and they get an ability to work with clients from all over the world. In addition to that, there is an increasing number of those who are willing to strike a balance between work, life, family, leisure and study. Those people are the ones who choose freelance as an innovative form of employment. For more than a year already, a great influence on freelance has Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions related to it. It forces people to work remotely and seek for new income sources as companies cannot afford to keep all the employees and have to decrease the staff. In the thesis are examined important aspects of freelance as industry: positive and negative aspects of freelancing for both freelancers and customers, influence of Covid-19 pandemic on freelancers’ work and also there was completed a social portrait of a modern freelancer. The relevance of this topic is reinforced by the fact that every year the number of people engaged in such forms of self-employment as freelancing is steadily increasing.

Keywords

Alternative lifestyle, types of employment, freelance market, freelancer, survey freelancer, Covid-19 statistics, remote work, statistics and analytics of freelances, digital nomad, self-employment, work-life balance.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 16. 4. 2021

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 9. 6. 2021
• Supervisor: Mgr. Jitka Cirklová, M.A.
• Reader: Mgr. Iva Baslarová, Ph.D.

University of Finance and Administration

Master programme / field:
Marketing Communication / Marketing Communication