It’s coming.

That slow, slightly wobbly slide into the British summer.

The inbox softens. Calendars clear.

People start saying things like “Let’s pick this up in September”, and they mean it.

Which is why I’m writing this now, before it properly hits.

Because when it does, it’s easy to forget it’s not just you.

One of the best things about working in the UK? We do actually know how to go on holiday.

By mid-July, it’s all out of offices and half-days and “let’s pick this up in September”.

Clients vanish to Devon or Dubrovnik. Slack goes quiet. Even your most neurotic stakeholder is suddenly off-grid, drinking wine at noon and forgetting you exist.

My American freelance friends find this absolutely terrifying.

Not the holiday bit (they’re getting the hang of that) but the fact that the clients go away too? For weeks? Without warning? No scheduled check-ins? No backlog grooming? No “quick sync”?

It keeps them up at night.

And if you work with those in mainland Europe... it’s even more extreme.

They don’t just take a break. They are properly Europemaxing it. Four weeks off, minimum. No replies. Eating seafood and ignoring email with continental grace.

You’ll get a response in September, and it will be polite but firm: “I was holidaying. What on earth were you doing?”.

On the other side of the pond, the pipeline mostly keeps piping. Over here, we’re all floating in a gentle sea of TBCs and “let’s circle back after the break”.

Which is why, when someone posts: “There’s loads of work out there, you just have to want it,” I feel an overwhelming urge to eat my laptop.

Because maybe that’s true... somewhere. But here? It’s quiet. And what we don’t need in July is to be gaslit by someone in Arizona with a ring light and a funnel.

If you’re not on a project right now, you’re not broken.

You’re just a freelance designer. In summer. In the UK.

And if you’re:

• fiddling with your portfolio

• nudging your services page

• doomscrolling LinkedIn for signs of life

• building a weird Notion doc called “Maybe Next?”

• doing admin you’ve ignored since Easter

• or just thinking vaguely about the future while eating crisps in front of a fan

That is work.

It’s not a day rate. It’s not a deliverable. But it’s still running the shop.

Think of your favourite little store. They’re not only taking care of business when someone’s at the till. They’re rearranging the window. Repainting a shelf. Shouting “hang on a sec” from the backroom.

Same goes for you.

So if someone asks, “Are you working right now?”

You don’t have to do a weird voice and say, “Well, just doing a bit on my own thing, you know…”. This has been my own refrain so many times, and I'm slowly changing it.

You can say: Yes. I’m working.

Because you are.

Even if your fan is louder than your inbox.

— Tom