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The Rise Of The Corporate Mercenary

Written by: Guy Kingston

Article Overview: It is said that the term “freelance” originated – as did an amazing number of other things – with the novelist Sir Walter Scott, who first used it in his novel Ivanhoe.

The Rise Of The Corporate Mercenary

It is said that the term “freelance” originated – as did an amazing number of other things – with the novelist Sir Walter Scott, who first used it in his novel Ivanhoe.

He was referring to a massive medieval industry. “Free companies” were bands of mercenaries who made a living taking one side, then the other in the numerous wars of the period. The free companies were divided into “lances” – which could refer to mounted men at arms or the sub units of the company based on the retinues of the men at arms.

Men like Sir John Hawkwood were among the great entrepreneurs of their time. He was an Essex man who took his free company – with the evocative but wholly inappropriate name of the “White Company” – into Italy, where his frequent changes of employer determined local politics for a generation.
Although Hawkwood and Co were probably no more rapacious than standing armies of states – and although ultimate responsibility belongs to the Popes and Republics who started the wars and employed them in the first place – the free lances have always had an unsavoury reputation. A soldier of the King may be as much a cut throat as a mercenary but his constant loyalty to one employer gives him a higher status.

So it is in the modern world. Being a salaried employee is usually seen as being preferable to being a freelancer. It looks better on the curriculum vitae. It brings security and legal protection. Many freelancers who go on about how much they enjoy their freedom secretly dream of being given a staff post by an employer for whom they currently do only occasional contract work.

Yet that may be changing.

Professor Charles Handy, probably the most far sighted management theorist on the eastern side of the Atlantic, predicted that most of us will eventually live “portfolio lives” – earning a living not from a single salary but from a portfolio of different activities. In effect, we will all be freelancers, one man businesses, or rather one man groups of businesses.

A number of trends are making this utopian vision more likely. Draconian employment laws – especially in Western Europe – actually discourage employment. The wise business will avoid permanent staff unless absolutely necessary. This means more work will have to be done on a contract or project basis by freelancers.

On the other side of the fence, many employees are finding freelancing more attractive as a positive choice, not just as a way of filling in time while looking for a new permanent post. There is a growing interest in getting “the proper work-life balance” and a realisation that “having it all” in neither possible nor desirable. We must make choices, and many people, when forced to prioritise, find that money is not after all the most important thing in the world.

The development of the “knowledge economy”, and of the internet as a means of communication, provides the mechanisms by which home working becomes a viable option. It is no longer necessary for a large proportion of the workforce to be in the same places at the same time.
There may be natural limits to this trend, but it does seem to be the way things are going.
Soon most of us will be hired guns. Hawkwood might be amused.

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Article Tags: charles handy, curriculum vitae, cut throat, earning a living, essex man, free lances, frequent changes, inappropriate name, john hawkwood, man businesses, man groups, management theorist, men at arms, occasional contract work, portfolio lives, professor charles, rapacious, salaried employee, sir walter scott, standing armies



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