#FuelYourHustle
June 27, 2016 5:49 PM Subscribe
Millennials are obsessed with side hustles because they’re all we’ve got. Among my friends, and 20- and 30-somethings as a whole, the side hustle–the gig you work in addition to your day job–is so ubiquitous that, in April, Glamour Magazine posed the rueful question: “You don’t freelance on the side… What kind of urban-dwelling Millennial are you?”
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, we've had a bunch of "millenials' economic/social/etc situation is unprecedented" vs "no they're whiny ninnies" thinkpieces and corresponding fighty threads in recent months, and I'm not sure how this one will be any different. -- LobsterMitten
Those friends of mine whose jobs are the most squarely aimed at the public good–teachers, local-government workers, a college buddy who works for a beloved and worthy nonprofit–they all tell me their side hustles are about survival, about being able to afford to live. Or just to eat at a restaurant once in a while. None would claim these jobs paid well before the recession.
So teaching totally pays well enough to 'eat at a restaurant once in a while.' Teaching pays well enough that I was able to buy my ex out of her share of the house and get a mortgage loan on my own. In Southern California. I don't know about these other jobs, but public school teacher is a union job, which is kind of the antithesis of what this article's about. Maybe she knows private school teachers?
posted by Huck500 at 6:01 PM on June 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
So teaching totally pays well enough to 'eat at a restaurant once in a while.' Teaching pays well enough that I was able to buy my ex out of her share of the house and get a mortgage loan on my own. In Southern California. I don't know about these other jobs, but public school teacher is a union job, which is kind of the antithesis of what this article's about. Maybe she knows private school teachers?
posted by Huck500 at 6:01 PM on June 27, 2016 [4 favorites]
Teaching pays well enough that I was able to buy my ex out of her share of the house and get a mortgage loan on my own.
The article is about people in their 20s and early 30s, which makes them relatively new to the workforce, which means they are unlikely to have tenure or a pay grade much above the minimum. Many of the teachers I know do not know if they are going to be hired back for the next school year right now. They live in group houses. Teaching does not pay well enough in many areas, and your experience, while valid, is not universal.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:14 PM on June 27, 2016 [5 favorites]
The article is about people in their 20s and early 30s, which makes them relatively new to the workforce, which means they are unlikely to have tenure or a pay grade much above the minimum. Many of the teachers I know do not know if they are going to be hired back for the next school year right now. They live in group houses. Teaching does not pay well enough in many areas, and your experience, while valid, is not universal.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:14 PM on June 27, 2016 [5 favorites]
....So this is just an article about the concept that people have to have day jobs to support themselves and what they really want to do?
Why is this news?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 PM on June 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Why is this news?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 PM on June 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is this what we used to call a "second job"?
No. A second job was a thing where you had an employer and you were the employee and had an employer/employee relationship with said employer. By virtue of being an employee you had certain rights and protections and the employer had responsibilities with regards to labour laws, work conditions, and how pay was structured, what happened if the employer chose to no longer continue the employer/employee relationship, and what were legitimate and legal reasons for discontinuing that relationship.
This is something else.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:19 PM on June 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
No. A second job was a thing where you had an employer and you were the employee and had an employer/employee relationship with said employer. By virtue of being an employee you had certain rights and protections and the employer had responsibilities with regards to labour laws, work conditions, and how pay was structured, what happened if the employer chose to no longer continue the employer/employee relationship, and what were legitimate and legal reasons for discontinuing that relationship.
This is something else.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:19 PM on June 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
That being said, can I interest anyone in my etsy store, 100% "vintage" jewelry.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:23 PM on June 27, 2016
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 6:23 PM on June 27, 2016
Wow, the trend pieces about Millennials and their weird, quirky habits is really picking up this summer. This is the second one I've read in an hour (this was the first).
"Millennials didn’t invent the second job, they just branded it."
Did we? Or did marketers do that for us, as a way to shoehorn us into a specific demographic in an attempt to market more shit to us, like Chevy vehicles?
Huck500: So teaching totally pays well enough to 'eat at a restaurant once in a while.' Teaching pays well enough that I was able to buy my ex out of her share of the house and get a mortgage loan on my own. In Southern California. I don't know about these other jobs, but public school teacher is a union job, which is kind of the antithesis of what this article's about. Maybe she knows private school teachers?
I was just gonna say, I'm pretty sure yoga teachers don't fit this article as well. A friend of mine who works at a Pilates studio told me that instructors there are their own bosses and commonly make $10,000/month. That's 10x the amount I make working $10/hr in the food service industry.
"Next along the line is the side hustle as self-delusion, i.e. spending years on some (doomed) artistic effort that will make the world care and understand, at last!"
Why is this a bad thing? Can someone squarely explain to me why art is regarded as such a negative thing that millennials do?
"Not because I’m above such earthly considerations. There’s just very little money in it to be for."
Yes, we know. We've all known that and it's been shoved down our throats for the past decade that "art=worthless" and that anyone pursuing art ought to starve to death. All of my friends who have gone to art school joke about their degrees being worthless. We get it. This trope is so overplayed.
"Now, you might wonder, what would a bunch of twenty-five year olds know about feeling stuck and dull?"
Yeah, what would a bunch of people who spent their first 18 years on the planet being told "if you work hard and get good grades you'll be fine" know about, well, not being fine? About being laced down with excruciating debt? About wanting to enjoy making art and maybe making some money from it? About being able to even afford to make art, just for fun? About working 12 hour days at jobs that give them no upward mobility, no satisfaction, in an economy where their wages are stagnant and landlords can force them out of the houses they're renting simply so they can charge $1500 for the room they had originally rented out for $650?
"But your side hustle can keep you from feeling pigeonholed. It’s the distraction from your disappointment, a bridge between crass realities and your compelling inner life."
Is it? Because for a lot of people it's just more work, in a society that demands of us to work more for less, and devalues a lot of our work.
I'm so sick of this bullshit. Can we get a trend article on why a bunch of assholes fucked the country up yet we're the bad guys for maybe wanting to not be miserable all the time?
posted by gucci mane at 6:24 PM on June 27, 2016
"Millennials didn’t invent the second job, they just branded it."
Did we? Or did marketers do that for us, as a way to shoehorn us into a specific demographic in an attempt to market more shit to us, like Chevy vehicles?
Huck500: So teaching totally pays well enough to 'eat at a restaurant once in a while.' Teaching pays well enough that I was able to buy my ex out of her share of the house and get a mortgage loan on my own. In Southern California. I don't know about these other jobs, but public school teacher is a union job, which is kind of the antithesis of what this article's about. Maybe she knows private school teachers?
I was just gonna say, I'm pretty sure yoga teachers don't fit this article as well. A friend of mine who works at a Pilates studio told me that instructors there are their own bosses and commonly make $10,000/month. That's 10x the amount I make working $10/hr in the food service industry.
"Next along the line is the side hustle as self-delusion, i.e. spending years on some (doomed) artistic effort that will make the world care and understand, at last!"
Why is this a bad thing? Can someone squarely explain to me why art is regarded as such a negative thing that millennials do?
"Not because I’m above such earthly considerations. There’s just very little money in it to be for."
Yes, we know. We've all known that and it's been shoved down our throats for the past decade that "art=worthless" and that anyone pursuing art ought to starve to death. All of my friends who have gone to art school joke about their degrees being worthless. We get it. This trope is so overplayed.
"Now, you might wonder, what would a bunch of twenty-five year olds know about feeling stuck and dull?"
Yeah, what would a bunch of people who spent their first 18 years on the planet being told "if you work hard and get good grades you'll be fine" know about, well, not being fine? About being laced down with excruciating debt? About wanting to enjoy making art and maybe making some money from it? About being able to even afford to make art, just for fun? About working 12 hour days at jobs that give them no upward mobility, no satisfaction, in an economy where their wages are stagnant and landlords can force them out of the houses they're renting simply so they can charge $1500 for the room they had originally rented out for $650?
"But your side hustle can keep you from feeling pigeonholed. It’s the distraction from your disappointment, a bridge between crass realities and your compelling inner life."
Is it? Because for a lot of people it's just more work, in a society that demands of us to work more for less, and devalues a lot of our work.
I'm so sick of this bullshit. Can we get a trend article on why a bunch of assholes fucked the country up yet we're the bad guys for maybe wanting to not be miserable all the time?
posted by gucci mane at 6:24 PM on June 27, 2016
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*holds shovel behind back*
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 5:56 PM on June 27, 2016 [1 favorite]