No one left to blame

For years a hairdresser in Mohandessin worked a chair in a large salon. She was good at it and disliked the job. Someone else set her hours, her prices, the products she had to recommend, the way she greeted each client at the door. She used to say she felt like one of the dryers: switched on in the morning, switched off at night.

Then she rented a small room of her own two streets away. Now she decides everything. Which clients she takes. What she charges. Whether she opens on a slow morning. Whether to attempt the dramatic colour a nervous bride is asking for.

It is what she asked for, and some days she cannot stand it.

Because control and responsibility arrive in the same box. At the salon, when a cut went wrong, there was a policy to point at. When a client argued about price, the price was not hers. If the week was quiet, it was someone upstairs who had to worry. She had no say, but she also had cover.

Now there is no cover. No one hands her a list for the day. No one tells her she did well. The client who leaves unhappy left her, not a brand.

More and more work is going this way, for people with scissors and people with laptops alike. Fewer instructions, more room to decide, more chance to be heard. Most people who wanted that wanted the first half, the freedom. The second half is that you are now the one on the hook, every day, with nobody above you to say it was their call.

Asking to be free and asking to be told what to do turn out to be different requests. Some people only discover which one they meant after they get it.