If your machine goes down on a Tuesday morning, chances are you have someone to blame who isn’t you, namely the IT department. You also probably have resources available that are lacking to the remote freelancer: an easily accessible spare machine, a department full of people who are tasked with dealing with any problem that arises, and a company budget willing to absorb costs that would be prohibitive for a sole trader. Most importantly, you probably regard your machine as company property rather than something that is yours alone to deal with.
The remote freelancer has none of these things. When a machine breaks, he or she can feel utterly alone.
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This is the basic difference between remote and office-based computing. When one machine crashes in the office, it doesn’t bring everything else to a halt. If your laptop fails, it can be replaced within minutes and, even if that isn’t possible, there’s often little problem about continuing work from another desk. In contrast, if a remote freelancer’s computer fails, that’s his or her full business that comes crashing down until something is done. There is no fallback and no second line of defence.
For most office workers, preventative maintenance is optional, but for the remote freelancer, there’s no alternative. Keeping all necessary software up to date, making sure that backups work and that security software has an active (not expired, 18-month-old) licence is critical, because the freelancer has to know that his or her system will always keep running.