Had to choose between hiring a junior employee or outsourcing to a freelancer

Last month I had a client project that needed extra hands for about 10 hours a week of content work. I was stuck between paying a part time junior person $18 an hour with all the overhead or giving the work to a freelancer at $25 an hour with no strings attached. I went with the freelancer because I figured it would be easier to cut them loose if the work dried up. Big mistake. The freelancer was good but had zero loyalty, missed two deadlines, and I spent more time babysitting than if I had just trained someone in house. Now I am stuck in a contract with this person for another 3 weeks because of the agreement we made upfront. Has anyone else had better luck going the freelancer route for ongoing work or is it always a headache like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

dixon.anthony2d ago

Is it really that serious though? I mean you picked a freelancer and it didn't work out perfect but that doesn't mean freelancing is always a headache. You could have hired the junior employee and they could have quit after two weeks or just been bad at the job too. There's risk either way. The contract thing is on you for locking yourself into a long agreement without a trial period first. Next time just do month to month or pay per project so you can bail whenever. People act like one bad experience means the whole system is broken. It's just one person who didn't work out.

wadeyoung2d ago

Yeah I gotta laugh at myself here because "the contract thing is on you" is basically my new motivational poster. I signed a 3 month agreement thinking I was being smart and locking in good help. Turns out I was just locking in a headache. My freelancer was a ghost for a week straight and I was sitting there like well I guess this is my life now. At this point I'm wondering if I should just hire the junior employee and hope they don't figure out how unreliable I actually am. Maybe I can break the contract by telling them I'll pay them in exposure and good vibes instead.