This paper examines how freelance animators who belong to an organization can manage their temporal order based on longitudinal fieldwork in an animation studio in Japan. While there has been a growing interest in freelance work as a new way of working recently, few discussions have been made regarding freelancers who work at organizations. To address this issue, this paper employs the concept of “schedule gift,” which depicts the risk of losing discretions that workers have due to the workerʼs dept to their manager who “kindly” arrange the schedule or shift of workers. Previous research on schedule gifts lacks the examination of the requirements and their positive meaning for freelancers.
Animators think that their belonging provides them with the risk hedge and opportunity for good jobs. While they often experience a change in their schedule, some of them are not considered gifts because the company causes the delay. On the contrary, schedule gifts work when animators find an opportunity to get a decent job and receive support owing to the managerial effort of the organization. This gift also has a positive meaning for animators because it offers not only coordination of their schedule but also higher quality of jobs.
