Sometimes office life gets me down (you may have noticed that).

Each day is the same. It starts with me rushing late and stressed to my desk and doesn‘t end until I switch off the PC … one day bleeds into another. “And my boss drives me mad, when she bothers to come in.

I sometimes wonder why I gave up my freelance life? And then I remember: because too many gits in finance kept "forgetting" to pay me." Note to any finance people: I just believe that weekly "cheque runs" still happen. Bloody joke.

So now I have a guaranteed salary and I don't (always) have to work to get paid.
 
Still, I look back with nostalgia to the time when I was my own man. And sometimes I think I will go it alone again. I’ll just wait until the recession ends, then I’ll weigh up the pros and cons of freelance versus agency life.
 
Pros of freelancing
1. You can get up when you want to. Hell, why get up at all? Why not work in bed? Where’s the laptop?
 
2. When you do earn money, you earn a lot more. The key word is “when”.
 
3. You only have to go to meetings that matter. Shame you usually don’t get paid for them.
 
4. There is greater variety. Basically I’ll do anything for money when it gets desperate. No job too small. Wonder if next door wants his grass mowing?
 
5. There is no incompetent boss. There is no waste-of-time annual review with said incompetent boss. The only incompetent person around is me.
 
6. You get twice as much done in half as much time. Which means you’re usually finished by lunchtime. If you’re up before lunchtime that is.
 
Pros of agency life
1. You get paid no matter what you are doing. Even when you’re making coffee, chatting to colleagues and booking your holiday online.
 
2. You get training. Even though this is usually a waste of time, at least it’s a way to escape the office.
 
3. You get perks. Pension contributions for example. Boring as that is, I am hoping to retire one day, and it would be nice to have some cash …
 
4. You get paid holiday. Best perk of all.
 
5. You can plan your life, and you don’t have to work around the clock. Well, that’s the theory.
 
6. You don’t have to talk to yourself, because there are other people around to annoy.