Companies & “Employees” Need to Embrace the New Trend of Side Gigs
APAC TEAM is a group of veteran sales guys based in Singapore, KL and Hanoi with successful sales experience all over Asia. Let APAC TEAM (www.apac-team.com) be “Your A-TEAM in ASIA.”
The workplace of the future and of today seems to involve multiple jobs that provide maximum flexibility and the ultimate backup plan for professionals navigating a fluid work environment. Companies that embrace new and innovative approaches to achieving “results” and not “paying for time” stand to thrive in this new environment. APAC TEAM was set up to bring this lower risk, lower cost approach to the world of Asia Sales.
The next generation of workers get this as input from millennial professionals indicates that a lot of the younger gang are working side gigs and it is not just for some extra cash. These side deals can be paid positions but in many cases are passion projects or re-training opportunities.
In the good old days, professionals landed full time jobs with mid and large tier companies and that was it. Employment contracts were put in place that committed employees to 100% attention to their new job with any work related ideas or inventions belonging to the company. In many cases there were severe non-compete clauses and strict non-disclosure rules in the contracts.
Over time it became clear that these rules were more than a bit one sided in the favor of the company. Loyalty back to the employee did not exist when the company ran into trouble and layoffs ensued. Many of us had to start over from scratch with no side deals in place when economic downturns led to our jobs being eliminated. These cuts could be very sudden and deep leaving experienced talent scrambling for new gigs.
The new generation does not seem to buy into this system and some tech companies agree. There has been a movement by some companies to loosen up on what their employees can work on and in some cases side projects are encouraged. This can lead to investment by the company into new ideas or a friendly exit of the employee with a view towards future cooperation.
As we transition from a workplace that in the past was viewed as stable, offering a “job for life,” to a more transactional workplace, “side hustles” will proliferate. The more fluid freelancing workplace of the future will place a premium on flexibility and mobility. More and more employees will look to have “side hustles” to provide additional income as well as a fallback position in the event of layoffs or non-renewal of contracts. Employers will have to get on board with this splitting of attention as long term employment is hardly a guarantee of today’s workplace. This space is certain to see more innovation in how we look at and define “what is a job.”
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