False self-employment

Okay, imagine you are playing a game where you pretend to be a doctor. You wear a white coat, carry a stethoscope, and give medicine to your stuffed animals. You feel like a real doctor, right?

Now imagine someone comes along and says they will pay you to be a doctor for real patients. They tell you that you don't need to go to school or get a license, but you just need to keep pretending to be a doctor and they will give you money.

This is what we call false self-employment. It means someone is pretending to be their own boss or running their own business, but really they are just working for someone else without the same protections or benefits.

In grown-up world, some companies might try to save money by hiring people as self-employed workers instead of regular employees. They might say things like, "you can work your own hours" or "you can choose your own projects." But in reality, the worker is often treated like an employee and might not have the same rights to things like sick leave or a fair wage.

So even though it might seem fun to pretend to be a doctor or work for yourself, it's important to make sure you are really getting fair treatment and not being taken advantage of.