How did we get here? Hauling ourselves out of bed at 4:30 am to beat the traffic and get to site? Because the industry, in its planning arrogance, chose to treat commuting misery as a non-issue. Because contractors, clients, site managers, and local authorities never built into schedules the chaos of rush hour and congestion. We nodded along, accepted the early starts, swallowed the long drive, and turned fatigue into normality.
How did we get here? Forced into self-employment, labelled as “independent contractors,” stripped of workers’ rights; all so firms can dodge payrolls, pensions, holiday pay and sick pay? Because somewhere along the line the narrative was hijacked: flexibility became a one-sided sword. Rather than a genuine freedom, it functions as a mechanism to shift risk and cost onto individual workers. In 2025, over one-third of the UK construction workforce are self-employed. That didn’t happen by accident. That happened by design. Now you pay your own tax, your own insurances, cope with the financial gaps, chase payments, get no safety net; all because the industry wanted you off the books but constantly on call.
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