Self-employed
Self-employed and alone with a client: staying safe without an employer
An employee who works alone is covered by their employer's duty of care. A self-employed person only has themselves: nobody checks that they made it out of their last appointment.
Risky situations
Trades differ, but the situations look alike: a meeting at a stranger's home, an empty place (a property for sale, premises under works), a late end of day, an unhappy client, cash or valuable equipment on you. The risk does not always come from a stranger: a client you know may one day react badly to an invoice or to bad news.
Before the meeting
- Identify the person you are meeting: full name, a phone number you have checked (call it back) and, for a viewing, contact details you can verify. Many agencies ask for this every time: it is not distrust, it is professional practice.
- Leave a trace: the address, time and client name in a shared calendar, or in a message to someone close or a colleague.
- Be wary of unusual requests: a first meeting very late or in an isolated place, insistence that you come alone, a refusal to give contact details.
- Set an end time and agree with someone on an "all done" message.
During the meeting
- Keep the way out clear: let the client walk into rooms first, stay on the door side.
- Keep your phone on you, not in the car or at the bottom of a bag.
- Agree on a code phrase with someone close: a harmless sentence on the phone ("remember to call the notary back") meaning "call me back with an excuse" or "call the emergency services".
- Leave if things turn bad. No sale, no job is worth staying for. An excuse is enough: a call, a document left in the car.
Afterwards
- Send the agreed message. If it does not arrive, the person you told knows they must call you.
- Write incidents down, even minor ones: a client who was aggressive once may be again, with you or with a colleague.
What a safety app does, and what it does not
Five Angels links your phone to five people you choose. During a meeting, Preventive mode records 15-second audio sequences that are analysed on our servers: if the artificial intelligence detects a scream, a call for help or an assault, the alert goes to your guardian angels with your location, without you touching the phone. At the end of the time you chose, you are asked a single question: with no answer within 60 seconds, the alert goes out.
The app does not detect falls or loss of consciousness, and your guardian angels are people close to you, not a monitoring centre. If your trade mainly exposes you to physical accidents, a device designed for that is still needed. The Self-employed page details these limits, and the guide PTI, DATI, safety app compares the options.