Thanks for All the Briefs: A Eulogy for Working Not Working
It’s always the good ones that go.
Published 5/14/2025
Working Not Working, that charmingly ambiguous job board turned creative clubhouse, is closing its doors. Or, as we in the freelance world say, “taking a final indefinite hiatus.”
Cue the group chat.
“Wait, what?”
“Did they get bought?”
“Did AI do this?”
“Is this like when American Apparel ‘closed’?”
Nope. After over a decade of connecting creative talent to brands and agencies, WNW is… done. Sunsetted. Eulogized in lowercase Helvetica.
Working Not Working was one of the rare platforms that felt like it was made by creatives for creatives, and not by a group of SaaS bros. You could be weird there. You could be yourself—portfolio link, passive-aggressive bio, and all.
It even had taste. Remember taste?
Was it perfect? Of course not. But as someone with similar creative origins building something in the same space, it stings.
But, like any seasoned freelancer watching a retainer client go up in smoke, I know what comes next: the calendar opens up. The inbox gets suspiciously quiet. But the need doesn’t vanish. The thirst for great talent, great teams, great taste—that endures.
And maybe this is when we rethink how we do it.
Maybe we rebuild the infrastructure for freelance hiring, but with less ego and more empathy. Less brogrammer, more benevolent matchmaker. Maybe we build something that makes the hiring side suck less and makes freelancers feel less like they’re bidding for table scraps.
Maybe—I don’t know—we call it Basil.
Or maybe we call it whatever we want. The point is: the era of Working Not Working showed us that freelancers aren’t the “alternative”—they’re the backbone. They’re the heroes that step in with a smile and make you look great.
So thank you, WNW. You’ll be missed.
You walked so a new generation of freelance tools could run, but with a new twist on tools, community, and integrations for the hiring side that makes onboarding smooth as butter.
The work—thankfully, frustratingly, gloriously—keeps working.
