Freelancers—FreeBeaters, in our parlance—commanded no respect and lived on the cusp of poverty. To their faces, we’d express envy. How terrific, we’d exclaim, to enjoy such flexibility! In truth, we pitied them: lowly orphans of the agency world, pawing after table scraps. We urged them to partake liberally from our snacks drawer for fear they might otherwise turn rabid in our midst.
