Flexible Work - Illustration

andrewsve

Hi everyone,

I just wondered if anybody would be able to give me a bit of advice that I could pass on to a friend.

A friend of mine has a chronic illness which, when it flares up for a week or two, leaves him unable to work and the poor guy is just tired of trying to start jobs and then getting asked to leave because they need reliability.

He has a degree in illustration and had just started an internship training to be a tattoo artist, but unfortunately got asked to leave due to some days he had to take off ill, as they claimed reliability was essential, which to some extent is understandable.

He is excellent at illustration, has a portfolio of his work and is just tired of trying right now, so I wondered if anybody could point me in the direction of any websites/freelance type work that he could perhaps get to keep some money coming in for him?

I know of websites like www.freelancer.com and so forth, but I was wondering if anybody had any other ideas.

Many thanks in advance for any advice!

It's much appreciated.

Cheers,

Andrew

InsideInsurance

andrewsve wrote: »

they claimed reliability was essential, which to some extent is understandable.

Unfortunately reliability is fully understandable rather than "to some extent".

If you are working in an organisation where 2,000 others are doing the same job as you then excusable reliability issues (disability, sickness, children) can be accommodated for but when you're in a very small team or even the only one with a skill set then an organisation will struggle to cope with someone that takes large amounts of time of sick leave.

How cyclical is the condition? If they can roughly predict when they'll be ill and shape their workload on that basis then the likes of freelancing sites may be worth while. The risk is that if he takes a job, gets ill and delivers late they will almost certainly get negative feedback and be more or less excluded from future jobs, particularly if this occurs before he has 30+ jobs under his belt with positive feedback.

If it cannot be predicted then he is really going to be better off working when he can and then selling the outputs afterwards. Assuming he is able to produce things electronically then he can do his designs and then sell them on stock photo sites (that do sell graphics as well as photos). That way he works when he can but the money keeps coming in continuously.

Stock photo sites can be difficult to crack and it takes more than simply being good at creating images.

zzzLazyDaisy

Did/does he declare his condition at interview?

Are you able to disclose the condition on this forum? The reason I ask is that it may amount to a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

This may give him some protection as an employer is required to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate his disability. This may, for example, being more lenient/flexible about time off sick. (I know I am using 'may' a lot - this is because each case turns on its own facts and what applies to one employee may not apply to another).

It might also be worth asking to see a disability adviser at the job centre. I have heard good and bad reports about how helpful they are, but our local job centre was extremely helpful with my friend's son, and got him back into work with a supportive employer, so it can be done.