The idea of "employment" is actually an aberration in history. For most of time, we had peasants and landlords. The peasants would work the land and would maybe get some food and a place to sleep.

Then industrialization came, and those who were skilled were contractors. They would do work for someone and get paid for the work they did. Then they would hustle for more work.

Even in factories, you would show up at the door each day and hope they had enough work for you, and then get paid as you left.

It was only very recently that factory owners thought about offering steady pay in exchange for not having to hire a staff every morning.