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| Jane Genova |
According to Bankrate, 36 percent of adults have added side gigs to their primary source of income. More than 50 percent started in 2022 when inflation was surging. So, obviously the major driver has been the need for extra income. The standard approach has been to grab whatever pays.
Essentially, Ken Banta and Orlan Boston write in the Harvard Business Review, that’s short-sighted. Instead, be strategic. Link the side hustles directly to what could move the dial on how you can make a good living long-term.
For example, the side hustles could be related to your current job in ways that help you develop new skills, prep you for a promotion, make contacts and enhance your brand. You might also use them to test out what kinds of work would be more marketable, bring better work-life balance and reduce stress. Or, the gigs can constitute your total livelihood in public relations. That professional strategy is called the “portfolio career.”
Thinking differently about work
Given the current instability of the job market, the idea of a portfolio career is getting popular. But it’s not new.
In the late 1980s, thought leader on the future of work Charles Handy coined that term to signal the coming end of the standard full-time job. Replacing it would be part-time and gig work. At the top of the organization would be a small number of permanent full-time employees. The purpose of such a structure would be to facilitate flexibility in using human capital.
In 2025, that projection seems on the money, at least for much of knowledge work. During the first three quarters of 2024, documents S&P Global, out of the 17.9 million layoffs, 3.7 million were for white collar jobs. Most of those positions aren’t expected to come back. The purging continues this year. Meanwhile, the small layer at the top are receiving record compensation.
Generative AI could accelerate the end of not only individual jobs but entire departments. The technology doesn’t just reconfigure tasks to make them more efficient. It can eliminate the need for the function.
No surprise, 70 percent of those searching for full-time white collar jobs are hitting a wall. About 90 percent of them indicate they have already done at least one side hustle. Perhaps they should ditch the job hunt and move right to strategic selections of gigs to keep up the skills they have, develop new ones, test out new kinds of work, create new networks and consider starting their own businesses.
Crossing that boundary from being the traditional full-time employee to adopting a portfolio career has lost much of the stigma.
When still in a full-time job
In that Harvard Business Review article Banta and Boston argue that side work related to the day job is actually necessary for professional development. That’s analogous to stretch assignments.
To some, doing a side hustle might seem career suicide. The orthodoxy is to be “obsessed” and “single-minded” about the tasks at hand. But professional anonymous networks such as Reddit, Fishbowl, Blind and Glassdoor chronicle the sagas of those who “played it safe” in that way and missed picking up the knowledge, skills and networks of those who replaced them.
Downsides
Getting the kind of professional development which would bring you long term marketability can be accomplished on the job. If you know how to lobby internally, that could happen. No need to retool through gigs. After all, adding on to the demands of your job side gigs creates its own set of problems. If intent on starting another career it might be more efficient to enroll in training for certifications or licensing.
Among the negatives about side gigs are:
Diluting your brand. Your signature is that you’re the best in slide deck preparation. You want to find out how you would do in sales. It seems an easy way to do that is taking a weekend part-time job selling phones. When those on your network spot you their jaws drop. Many remain convinced that professionals should be one-dimensional about their employment. Also, there could be nasty gossip that you’re desperate for money.
Lack of work-life balance. You may be toying with doing different kinds of work in order to have more time for yourself. Meanwhile, you’re exhausting yourself experimenting with what could be your next career or a small business. There’s the possibility of burnout.
Conflict of interest. To get experience in such-and-such you may be doing remote assignments for a business which is a competitor of one of the agency’s accounts. Given that the agency is large you may not be aware of this conflict of interest until the CEO calls you in.
Putting the job at risk. When you start out, you tell yourself that you will keep the job and the sideline separate. Then a gig deadline comes up. Or there’s nothing to do and you’re bored. You think you’re getting away with doing this “overemployment” on company time. Well, you’re not. You could be put on a Proposal to Improve Performance because of a falloff in attention to detail or productivity. Or worse.
What about employers
When considering doing strategic gigs in addition to your job, you have to factor in both your employer’s formal policy and their perception of your add-ons.
According to Express Employment Pros, 50 percent of employers have no policy about gigs. Ask about this. The concern for 55 percent of managers has been discovering those gigs being done on company time, either in the office or remote.
Of course, you must be alert to possible conflicts of interest, revealing confidential information and unauthorized use of intellectual property.
Another serious matter is how individual superiors size up your off-duty activities. The organization’s policy can be irrelevant. The thumbs-down from even one person in the power structure in professional services such as public relations, management consulting and law can result in increased scrutiny, being blocked from a promotion or put on the chopping block.
The end of the job
Charles Handy was futuristic when predicting that the full-time job would become an anachronism. Now? That sounds about right for what could happen soon enough. A portfolio career provides the knowledge base, skills and people resources as well as the confidence to be proactive about how to continue to earn a good living, no matter what.
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Career Coach Jane Genova provides end-to-end services, ranging from diagnosis of challenges and fix-it strategies to preparation of resumes/cover letters/LinkedIn profiles and how to gain control of an interview. She specializes in over-50 work issues. Her edge is a background in marketing communications. For a confidential complimentary consultation please text/phone 203-468-8579 or email janegenova374@gmail.com. Remote and in-person.
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