The happiest workers in China, according to the "2015 Chinese Happiness Index" compiled by the magazine China Xiaokang and researchers at the Tsinghua University, are the ones without bosses. Being self-employed topped the Happiness Index for the first time last year. Previously government officials, teachers and civil servants have been the happiest.
There are obviously good reasons why being self-employed makes people more content - they can arrange their work schedules the way that suits them and they never have to suffer office politics or gossip.
And being self-employed, for many is more profitable than working for someone else. A report released by Ganji Inc, a Chinese online and mobile-based classified advertising operator, revealed that around 68 percent of O2O (online to offline) freelancers earn 5,000 yuan ($770) a month, with 9 percent earning more than 10,000 yuan. The average monthly salary of an office worker in Shanghai is about 5,451 yuan in 2014, according to Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.
There are also many disadvantages for people considering taking the plunge and working on their own - unpredictable earnings, a reduced circle of friends, and no welfare insurance are among major concerns for the self-employed.
But variety is the key here. The Global Times talked to three very different people about their experiences as self-employed workers.
Own timetable
"It is true that I can arrange my work around my own timetable, but there's no real freedom without hard work," said Yao Huan, a 27-year-old freelance interpreter.
Yao is self-disciplined and hardworking and at any time will be working on several different projects which also give her multiple income streams. Not all of these are language interpreting - she cannot support her lifestyle in Shanghai with interpreting work alone at this stage.
Whenever she has time to spare she is usually studying at home or in a library.
"At present I am studying in my spare time to prepare for the CATTI (China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters), the officially recognized test for interpreters in China. If I am lucky and get a CATTI certificate, I hope to be able to do conference interpreting and big translation projects in the future," Yao said.
She said there was fierce competition in the translating world in Shanghai - speaking fluent English is no longer a great advantage in this very international city. The only way, she feels, she can improve her income is to offer clients a more varied service (for higher fees, of course) and be prepared to do conference or simultaneous translating. As well as English, she is studying French and Spanish.
After graduating from a university in Hunan Province, Yao came to Shanghai in 2012, and had conventional jobs before taking up as a freelancer in 2014. "I was working for other companies for two years and I got tired of the office workers' nine-to-five routine life and the complicated office politics. I was inspired by a traveling blogger - I heard my heart telling me to seize the day and do the things I wanted to. So I quit my job and began my freelance career," Yao told the Global Times.
Working for herself was harder than she imagined at the beginning. In the early days she had a few odd jobs as an English-speaking tour guide and exhibition interpreter. But she seized every little opportunity and accumulated more and more clients over time. "If people are happy with your work, they'll come back. It is important for freelancers to build up long-term relationships with their clients," Yao said.
The money an entry-level interpreter can expect is not bad. "I earn an average 6,000 yuan a month, and sometimes even 10,000 yuan. Experienced simultaneous interpreters can make 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a month," Yao said.
But because her income is not predictable, she has had times when she has struggled to find the money to pay her rent. And she has had clients who have offered work but then cancelled at the last minute.
