When I asked how freelancers handle their workload when sick it seemed unanimous, we all do our best to work right through illness and fatigue. Ultimately, continuing to work when unwell leads to lowered productivity and extended ailments. The simple fact is, if we don’t rest when ill, we won’t recover as swiftly. Indeed, the added stress of needing to meet deadlines and maintain quality can increase the severity of our affliction. What are some alternatives to working through illness?

When a traditional employee calls to take a day of sick leave the manager will make arrangements to have someone else work that shift. They might find an employee working on cross hours, hire agency staff, or temporarily increase the team workload, but someone is there to fill the shoes of the absent worker. Why don’t freelancers ask for help when they are sick?

Recently, I’ve been reading James Chartrand and Mason Hipp’s, The Unlimited Freelancer. In this fantastic e-book they talk about the vital need to outsource or cross-source. This could be a perfect example of how freelancers benefit from asking for help.

#1: Outsourcing or cross-sourcing can allow you time to recover while not losing the potential income or goodwill of your clients.

While it might seem like paying someone else to work on your behalf costs you money the truth is, the long term benefits far exceed the short term expense. When we are sick, every hour we work produces less; less quality, less quantity, less results. Our clients have expectations and we have to work harder than ever to meet those expectations. By hiring healthy workers we can still meet the demands of our clients, and even surpass them, while reducing the stress to complete everything ourselves.

#2: Leverage your time by outsourcing or cross-sourcing.

We all have a limited number of hours each week with which we can work. Many freelancers feel locked into those hours as the only hours available to them. Locked into these hours we have a limited growth potential, we can only take on a set schedule of clients, jobs, and commissions before making sacrifices in other areas of our lives. By employing others we can increase our available hours, two freelancers doubles your available time.

#3: Take on more commissions, expand your clientele.

Why sacrifice sleep to meet a crushing deadline? Why give up time with our children because we have one more article to research and write? Why turn down that fantastic commission, disappoint that potential client, because we’ve already a full plate of work this week? The truth is, we don’t have to give up or turn down, anything. By working with others we can accept more work than one freelancer could complete on their own. More commissions and more clients means more money, for everyone.

#4: Do more of the work you love and none of the work you hate.

Even when we are sick there are emails to answer, invoices to send, and any of a hundred small jobs that we hate to do. These maintenance tasks need to be completed but honestly, any able worker could do what takes many hours of each day. By outsourcing these tasks you can focus on the aspects of your freelancing career that you love.

When a freelancer gets sick, they can either work through the illness, turn out mediocre results, delay recovery, and miss deadlines, or we can ask for help. Develop a team of freelancers you can turn to when your workload becomes unmanageable or illness descends.

Can you think of other reasons to outsource? Have you ever considered outsourcing some of your work when ill? Where do you find quality freelancers when you need help? What other alternatives are there to working through illness?

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