Youth Learn to Hustle
It's easy to overstate this, of course, but seems like young people -- some young people, anyway -- are facing the uncertain economy with rational flexibility. They're becoming more entrepreneurial. They're hustling more. Even if they already have a job. From Forbes.com:
Millennials are both working several jobs simultaneously and sequentially. Nearly one in four (22%) expect to work at six or more different companies during their professional lives, according to DeVry University and Harris Interactive. Only 28% expect to work for fewer than three employers during their careers.
In other words, a lot of young employees have "side jobs," or outside projects, that they work on in their spare time. And maybe even on company time:
There are both challenges and opportunities for companies reacting to this multi-careerism generation. “There are three ways you can handle it,” says [Ross] Martin [of Viacom’s trend-spotting and innovation division, Scratch.] “You can shut it down, ignore it, or embrace it. I get that [employers] think, ‘If I pay you and give you a desk, I expect you to do the job. I don’t want to hear you are doing something else.’ But what happens when that employee is more effective and productive with the side hustle?” Martin says employers need to see multi-careerism as an opportunity, and not as competition.
At the same time, multi-careerism raises some corporate complications for employers, including divided loyalties, scheduling priorities, and conflicts of interest. As such, many traditional companies err on the side of deterrence. Many employers require their workers to receive permission before seeking another job. Other HR departments don’t officially ban other endeavors, but they place restrictions on maintaining them.
What this suggests is that young employees realize that their future has more to do with their own entrepreneurial activity than the stability of their employer or industry. It suggests that more and more young employees see themselves as individual small businesses operating under contract with a larger entity. So you don't work for an insurance company. You work for yourself, and you're currently -- maybe temporarily -- contracted to an insurance company.
That also suggests that more and more young people are going to start thinking and voting Republican.
Or am I dreaming?
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Sep '10
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
I certainly hope you are not dreaming. I do think that some young people do not equate that sort of entrepreneurial thinking with the Republican Party and that is a pity.
Mar '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
On a recent EconTalk podcast, the guest... a professor at the U. of Chicago... noted that some of his students came to him for help in getting their business started. Then his heart sank when they told him they wanted help "getting some of that government TARP money".
If most of these youngsters have to work in a real, free market economy, with real rewards for work and real consequences for failure, then yes, the majority will end up voting GOP. But if they learn to equate capitalism with taxpayer-funded rent seeking, then no, they'll be perfect Democrats.
May '10
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
Well jobs on the sly, usually cash ones, are a Dem mainstay too -- especially for gov't workers -- but the point's a good one.
Also, the job-to-job mobility should mean the youngsters would see the wisdom in decoupling health insurance from the workplace -- a policy that should be a Republican priority. Personal HSA's anyone?
Feb '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
They are behaving like Republicans but being self sufficient is uncool. It's as if all those hipsters dropping hundreds of dollars every Saturday night at the velvet rope club don't want anyone to know where they got the hundreds of dollars to burn, it's uncool. the hip crowd doesn't discuss how they afford the hip kicks, threads, iPhone9, the $15 drinks -- or the trendy apt in Coolville -- it's unspoken, because when politics comes up in conversation they all want to be for "home ownership", "the 99%", "right to healthcare", "student loan amnesty", and the dream act " 'cuz everyone deserves a chance to be in the USA !".
They unfortunately have no clue that many of those ideas are the things that disrupt productive society, and they roll their eyes at moral hazard theories.
Pinch yourself Rob.
Edited on August 15, 2012 at 3:50amRe: Youth Learn to Hustle
Troy and I discussed this a bit a few weeks ago from the perspective of filing taxes. So many young Americans work several part time jobs or on several "projects", or at a full time job and a few side gigs too. Preparing one's taxes gets to be a pretty monstrous feat (my tax guy last year asked me what a K-1 was! I knew I was doomed), and I hear immense dissatisfaction from my acquaintances of both political stripes about how ridiculous and bureaucratic the tax code is, and how it really ought to be simplified. It's not just frustration, it's real anger. Problem is that we have no lobby out there to advocate on behalf of young hustlers.
Jul '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
This only makes sense. With the government spending money like drunken sailors with little or no repercussions for failure or wrongdoing why would any enterprising young person not try to get into the action? It is only good business.
Jun '12
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
Lord, hear our prayer!
Feb '12
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
Your silver lining has a rather large and dark cloud attached, Mr. Long ...
Yes, we're into the "gig" economy. I sell shoes "professionally," do the odd legal job when I can, manufacture crochet for some extra spending money, and am working on some fiction to publish on Amazon for a little dough and yet more resume padding. (Not to mention enrolling in clinical depression studies to obtain anti-depressants.) With all that "hustling," I can barely eke out a living.
Do you know what's not happening when 20 somethings have to "hustle" their way through life? Full reporting of all one's income. Marriages. Kids. Stable credit histories. Purchasing homes. Creating social networks of neighbors to have communities.
Yes, the hustling trend is better than the OWS "gimme" philosophy, but let's not pretend this is anything but the best possible reaction to a really horrible situation.
May '10
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
Even old guys like me have had at least 5 different post-college employers in different fields, and counting college part time jobs (for us low-lifes who worked our ways through state universities instead of borrowing to go Ivy League) I've had three different employers go broke.
The amazing thing is that any people today would expect it to be different in a fast-changing world where the post office is obsolete.
Feb '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
Sorry Rob don't get your hopes up. Sure they are hustling because they must but inside I daresay most are seething with anger. They were promised the good life as long as they got a college education, followed the correct PC ideology, etc. Alas the real world has ripped the carpet under their feet and yet they don't possess enough self awareness to understand what is really happening. If you interviewed a significant number of these individuals I would bet they would acknowledge that they yearn for job security, better wages, etc. They yearn for the safety net that Liberalism promises because it's all they have known. Mom and Dad provided the first safety net up until they graduated and in their immaturity they still yearn for it.
Dec '10
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
I still find it amazing that big companies (who will grind up an employee at the drop of a hat) actually expect their employees to display loyalty toward the company.
Of course your employees aren't loyal, even they know they're expendable in the company's eyes.
A job is voluntary on both sides.
You do their work, they pay you, at the end nobody owes anybody anything. You are not beholden to them because they gave you a chance to work for them, and they are not beholden to you because you took the chance to do their work.
Action, compensation.
It's just business. People get all tripped up when they try to think of it like joining a family or an army or something. Those things are not business. You give to them far more than you get.
If folks treat their jobs like that, it's no wonder that they get bitter over time.
I'm 32. Since I college, I've had three different careers. Self employed, then salaried employee, now back to self employment.
From now on, the industry served may change, but the self employed part will not.
Jul '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
My 22 year old is finishing up a job in Texas and is going to wildcat in North Dakota or New Mexico. Oh to be young.
Jul '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
The young learned to hustle a long time ago.
May '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
That's what they told us when I was a graduating member of another marketing-manufactured group called Generation X. And to be honest, there are a lot more temp and contract positions on my CV than any full-time jobs with full benefits. They're right about the whole experience turning us conservative and giving us an aversion to paying taxes though, especially in places where second incomes are taxed at twice the usual rate.
Feb '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
A tax preparer didn't know a k-1??? Speaking of hustling, I definitely know what a k-1 is. If you need a new CPA then I'm open for business and accepting new clients.
Nov '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
My first thought was, if they can even get hired with a resume of short-term jobs without sufficient reasons. Also, employers know to be wary of people with second jobs. Not that it is bad in itself but that it always tends to interfere with the day job so it isn't necessarily a plus to put this on your resume. An employer will usually look for the one who is not only the most qualified but dedicated.
You need to realize that it's great when an employee consistently shows up on time, and isn't absent without calling in.
Big corporate jobs don't say much if called as a reference but smaller companies do and it's known if you have a habit of leaving your employer in-the-lurch or other bad habits. Their work-world may get smaller and smaller.
That being said if they have an overall personal goal and work toward it and also hold a job where they do their best- good luck to them!
Apr '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
Rob, your deluding yourself. Having to have multiple jobs, and multiple employers over a life time means that our lives are unstable. This will mean we move around more, and form fewer attachments to communities and locations since we are no longer picking a place to live but rather moving after jobs like a great herd of grazing animals. Uncertain job future will also delay people in doing things like getting married, and having children. If Republicans dream about the Golden days of the 50's and 60's with respect to family life they should note that those were times of great stability. You got a job and worked for a company for 30+ years and then retired with a pension. Now you are a vagabond going from city to city.
People hate instability, the democrats will offer them European style job protection. They will take it because they don't think things through.
Jul '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
I came to age in the Carter Economy. I had to work my way through school as the economy bankrupt my parents and destroyed my father’s business. I cannot remember a time that I did not have at least one job and several side hustles going. While this has made me more successful than many I have also given up much to my normal 75+ hour work week and erratic hours. My lifestyle has caused me to shun long term relationships (as many women will not put up with my schedule) and I have forgo the concept of fatherhood altogether as both are large sucks of time that I just could not afford. The multiple job, multiple hustle life is not for the faint of heart, it is not for everyone. If it is to be the new norm for all then we are doomed.
Mar '11
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
Yup, there is the very real possibility that when the fabulous life they were promised doesn't come to pass, they'll believe Democrats when they say "It's all the Republicans fault". Nevermind that many should never have gone to college anyway, and that employers don't give a damn about their degree in Bisexual Latino Studies.
Feb '12
Re: Youth Learn to Hustle
I wouldn't say we long for the safety net of government entitlements, per se; I'd simply love the "safety net" of health insurance, sick leave, vacation time, and maybe even a work contract instead of at-will employment.
I didn't want my husband to get unemployment benefits; I wanted him to get a job. I don't want student-loan forgiveness; I just want the kind of job I mortgaged my future to get. I don't want food stamps; I just want to make more than $12/hour. I don't want Medicaid; I just want to have health insurance benefits and sick time.
Sure, there are those out there grabbing for all the goodies they can get, and I wouldn't refuse any of them if they were offered to me. Poor people, after all, can't afford principles.
But I think you'd be amazed how many people would be happy just getting a hand-up instead of a hand-out.