Side Hustle The New Norm?

Side Hustle is the name being given to the practice of creating and running your own business,
very often an online business, in your spare time, outside of the hours you work for an
employer.

Assuming there is no contractual obligation that precludes this, and therefore the person is free
to do it, is this something to be encouraged or discouraged?

I will attempt to present a balanced view

From the employee's point of view, you can see the attraction of
Side Hustle.

1.Obviously it is an opportunity to earn more money. Not to be underestimated these days.

2. It is an opportunity to discover the entrepreneur within you. If others can run a successful
business perhaps you can.

3. It's a possible way of escape from the job you dislike. It gives you a new-found freedom if
successful.

4. Given the power of digital technology it is potentially a lot easier to launch your own business
these days particularly if launching an online business.

5. It need not be costly. Perhaps your time is the one greatest cost.

6. You need not undertake this alone. Perhaps a relative or close friend could assist you and
share the cost and potential #risk.

7. There is now a wealth of knowledge to be gained via the #web to assist you to get it right first
time.

8. You can be flexible on the hours you give to this opportunity.

9. You can protect your work/life balance particularly if it is an online business not requiring
travel.

10. You can incorporate your learning into your full-time job potentially making you a more
valuable employee.

So, there are many good reasons for 'Side Hustle ' from the employee's perspective.
What about the employer's perspective?
I am reminded of the well known quote of Tom Peters, author of In Search Of Excellence, as he
addressed an audience of Senior Managers.

He said:

'If you want to ask your employees a really scary question, ask them what they do in their spare
time. You will find that one is the leader of a choir, another restores vintage cars, another
designs and builds house extensions, another is an accomplished painter and so on. Which
means, he goes on to say, that you have people as your employees who are highly self-
motivated, very committed and really results oriented except during the hours of 9 am to 5 pm
when they work for you! '

I remember you could hear a pin drop in the audience! What a challenging point to make! I
wonder how many of the audience took notice of it and did something about their own
employees' contribution to their business.

You see people give of their best to those things they are gifted to do, really enjoy doing and
gain success doing. They are so self-motivated no one else is needed to motivate them. What a
message for managers struggling to motivate their people!

So how can organisations turn Side Hustle into a win for them as well as the employee? Well
here are some thoughts:

1.To start with the organisation needs to be really committed to a culture and practice of full
employee engagement.

What do I mean by this? It means that the organisation actively encourages and rewards its
employees for contributing to the continuous improvement of the organisation in the jobs they
do.

The organisation not only reinforces the need for acting in line with corporate values, and
#achieving #performance standards, it also stresses the importance of thinking of new and
better ways to do their jobs. This might include better use of #resources, improved use of
systems, creative ways to increase customer satisfaction and introduction of new technologies.
Employees are not just seen as workers doing what they are told but partners in the business
adding value by proposing and then implementing really important changes at their level.

2.If the organisation is a learning organisation, deeply committed to employee engagement and
empowerment, it will welcome the notion of 'Side Hustle '. It will not fight it. It will see it as
another opportunity for the business to embrace further employee involvement in their jobs by
having employees suggest changes as a result of their Side Hustle' experiences.
3.If the organisation has a Head of Innovation it will have a process for these ideas to be shared
with this person.
The Head of Innovation will continuously collate the shared #information and #evaluate it for
use in ongoing or new corporate improvement projects.

4.Enlightened and forward-thinking organisations like this create win/win outcomes. A win for
the employee in learning how to grow a business and a win for the organisation as it benefits
from their learnings.

Of course, employees need to feel secure enough to share in this way which is why they need to
be working for enlightened organisations who believe that their employees' personal
development, in or outside of work, need not be a threat to their own organisational
development.

You may say; ' But this is so naive. Surely the employee will leave the organisation when they
have succeeded in building their own business. The result will very probably be a lose/win with
organisation being the loser. I would respond; 'That may well happen. If it does the organisation
has still gained something to its benefit. If the employee stays then this partnership way of
working would still continue.'

But what if the employee's organisation is unenlightened regarding 'Side Hustle'? Well here are
the dangers for it:

1.They regard it as a threat possibly making noises about breach of contract and legal
consequences thus alienating the employee and hastening their departure.

2.If the employee stays they leave 'emotionally ' withdrawing their #discretionary #effort and
during their work hours focus on their out of work business interests.

3.The organisation loses its much needed talent and their bright ideas which could only benefit
it.

4.They gain a reputation for being out of touch with today's best practices in people's #personal
development.

5.Worst of all ' they bury their head in the sand ' when it comes to employee engagement
which is such a major contributor to its future success. Stupid!
Summary
Is the practice of 'Side Hustle' merely another name for the old fashioned term of
'Moonlighting. I don't think so.

The mood of the day I believe goes far beyond just earning supplementary income. People can
see the often mind- blowing success of bloggers, online business owners, and others using this
digital era to fully exploit their talents in other innovative business models.

I sense this mood of the day will be with us for some time, perhaps forever.

Organisations had better 'go with the flow' or suffer the consequences. Side Hustle' is now
becoming The New Norm!'
To find out more about this
topic contact me

Contact Me

E: jeremy.francis@constantior.com

W: www.constantior.com

O: +44 1634 787454

M: +44 7973 216323

S: jeremy.francis1904

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Gillingham
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