This little freelance grassroots community will be observing the summer shutdown period once again. The Freelance Jungle admin team will be wriggling our toes in sand, sniffing babies, patting dogs and reading books. That means we will be making a few changes over the holidays to how you use the Freelance Jungle Facebook Group.
We believe that stress has a productivity cost. And that connection with family, friends and the world outside the online realm and social media is incredibly important. So, our team will be taking time away from the Facebook group for 15 days this year.
Our freelance grassroots community has been a daily undertaking of almost around the clock monitoring and management for several years. It’s fair to say that 2020 has been really difficult for everyone, and that includes our admin team. If we are going to put our best foot forward admin-wise in 2021, we need a break away from administering the group.
This means from Monday 21st December 2020 through January 4th, 2021:
All posts will be reviewed
All posts will be held in pending until approved by an admin. Approval by an admin will be given on an ad-hoc basis, depending when or if an admin happens to come onto Facebook for their own purposes. None of the admin team (including the founder) are under obligation to check the group. And all admin team members will have notifications switched off.
This means we can manage content on our terms. This is different to the current system where you can post whenever you like.
Please don’t message any individual admin or the admin box to hasten the approval of your post as it defeats the purpose of the shutdown in the first place.
All new members need to wait for entry
We will not be approving new members until the end of the summer shutdown. This includes the friends you introduce to the group. Given new members often need the most support, we’re reducing the admin load while ensuring that continuity of support once we return.
Monitoring the Freelance Jungle will take a different format:
We may mute you if you’re rowdy
Experience has taught us that unwanted behaviour can increase during the festive season due to financial pressure, increased intoxication and issues related to family and related dysfunction.
We know it can be tough, so we’re opting to mute members we believe may be intoxicated or acting out of character. A virtual time-out is a compromise and is in lieu of stronger, more permanent steps of warning or removing members.
There is a caveat.
Abuse will not be tolerated
The zero tolerance of bullying and abuse that is a central part of the effective management of our grassroots freelance community remains.
While we’re opting for mute over removal, if you demonstrate a pattern of abuse and/or the abuse is:
a) At a level that more than sobering up would be required
b) Clear that inflicting abuse is in some way exciting and pleasurable to you
c) Or part of a pattern of behaviour on a regular or semi-regular basis
We have no problem with removing you.
This includes abuse in public or private. And it includes a zero tolerance for contrarians or members who have a history of clapping back or flipping admins the bird. In short, it pays to stay off the naughty list.
Changes to contact with the Freelance Jungle admin team:
The admin box will not be monitored
General requests, questions, permission asks etc will take a backseat until we return from Christmas break.
If there is something terrible and urgent going on in the group etc, we want you to use the REPORT feature.
Please be advised there will be delays to any messages sent to the admin inbox- and that could mean hours if not days.
If you are in distress and/or crisis, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Please do not message individual admins
Our admins deserve the right to rest, recharge and recuperate from 2021.
I can’t stress this enough. I don’t want to see a single Freelance Jungle related message in any admin’s personal inbox, regardless of whether you have had previous correspondence or not.
Each of us in our own way has taken a battering in 2020.
Please, do this simple kindness and let us spend times with our families so we can come back and appreciate this beautiful grassroots freelance community again.
You can also email us or use the contact form
This won’t speed up any questions you have. It should be used if (for example) you are interested in exploring opportunities in 2021 with us.
The email is info (at) freelancejungle (dot) com (dot) au or use the contact form attached to the Freelance Jungle website.
We reserve the right to extend the shutdown should we need it:
We may choose to extend these dates at our discretion. As we look after our families and begin our own businesses for another year, we ask that we are given the opportunity to do so.
As the bushfires and COVID taught us, we may also need to take extra time for circumstances beyond our control.
Giving us time to do what we need to do as people will mean you receive a happier, calmer, more consistent and less stressed admin team.
Thank you for making 2020 brighter
It hasn’t been an easy year, but we appreciate your support and what you bring to this grassroots freelance community. We know you care about the Jungle being a safe and sustainable project that contributes to everyone’s wellbeing. We appreciate that a shutdown can be inconvenient and ask for your patience and respect.
Stay safe, be kind to you, keep up the self-care – and we will see you bright eyed and bushy-tailed for 2021.