Samurai Noir Meets Boardroom Politicking: The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee
I spent my professional working life as a freelancer, temporarily employed by a various corporations, ad and media companies, start-ups, and consultants on a project, on-call, or contractual for a stated number of months basis. Work might last a month or two, sometimes as much as a year, and then I never hear from the employer again; others develop into long-term relationships, albeit at time with gaps (sometimes long gaps) between assignments.
As a “disposable asset,” I cost the organization less (even as I earn higher pay because there is no overhead expense) and am easier to terminate than a salaried employee. While in today’s gig economy job-seekers often have little choice but to settle for contract work, I turned down offers of full-time permanent employment (though “permanent” is a misnomer given the trend of corporate “restructurings” and “force redeployments” and other such euphemisms to disguise layoffs).
