freelancer
Pluralfreelancers
- 1A self-employed person who sells their work or services to multiple clients rather than working for a single employer.
Like a taxi driver who carries many different passengers rather than chauffeuring one family.
After leaving the agency, he became a freelancer and now juggles five regular clients.
A careful freelancer keeps detailed invoices and tracks every billable hour.
Similarcontractor, consultant
- 2A person who carries out duties outside the established chain of command and standard operating procedures.
Like a musician in an orchestra who stops following the conductor and plays their own tune.
The incident commander reprimanded the freelancer who broke off to ventilate the roof alone.
On a chaotic fireground, a single freelancer can disrupt coordinated efforts and endanger the whole crew.
Note
Emergency services use the word for a problem rather than a profession. On a fire or EMS scene, or in police work, the freelancer is the responder who acts alone, outside the chain of command and the SOPs (standard operating procedures) that keep a crew coordinated. Unlike the self-employed worker, who chooses independence as a way of working, this freelancer is being faulted for it.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "freelance" combined with the suffix "-er".