7th July 2011, 05:44 PM
gumbo Wrote:Another thing I have been thinking about for the 5 years theme is the amount of frustrated people setting themselves up as freelance. If there are less 'big digs' where collective working is paramount, might more and more people just set up on their own after a relatively short 'apprentiship' with an organisation?
I've also seen an increase in people setting up on their own over the last couple of years, and the obvious comment is that it works for some people and not for others. Some have the experience to do the small jobs and the contacts to win the large jobs, like the freedom of being their own boss and can live with the pressure of constantly needing to find the next contract to ensure that they can pay the bills. Others probably go down this route too soon, without any knowledge of the business side of being freelance or the archaeological experience to deal with difficult sites, or simply prefer the relative security of a regular pay packet.
I could see a model where informal networks of contacts grow up between freelance archaeologists, whereby if one wins a job that needs four people on site, they contact other freelancers working in that area to help out, on the basis that this would be reciprocated when one of the others wins a large job in the future. This would allow sole traders to bid for and win larger jobs against more formal units, without having the complexity and expense of paying for a 'standing' workforce. There's probably some downside that I've overlooked, and it's possible that it could be viewed as a cartel, but it seems like a nice idea to me.
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum