Let's hear it for "polyworking"

When most people lose their jobs, they experience panic and worry. There are bills to pay, a mortgage to maintain, perhaps children to support through college or car payments to make. How will they survive without their employment? Frantically they update their résumé and commence the often-disheartening round of answering want ads or blasting out their credentials on the internet, begging someone – anyone – to employ them.

I get this. I totally get this. And for this reason, we've always endorsed having multiple income streams as protection against a job loss. We call this the "many irons in the fire" method of earning a living. The idea behind this is if one iron disappears, you have multiple other irons still sizzling. If you lose your job, you still have other income streams and won't be left destitute. You can then concentrate on honing those other streams into larger producers, either until such time as you find another "primary" job, or decide to permanently shift into having multiple part-time jobs.

This is a surprisingly common tactic with rural people, where jobs are often very low-paying. Over the years, we've met people with an astounding variety of "irons." We knew one fellow who operated heavy machinery, flew helicopters, and raised bison. We knew a woman who cleaned houses, sold crafts, and worked as a substitute teacher. Yet another woman sold produce at farmer's markets, babysat children for a working mother, and did desktop publishing projects for local businesses.

Laying multiple income irons in the fire is a matter of harvesting any and all experience, interests, potential, or opportunities, seizing any (ethical, legal) means to earn money, especially since you never know where it might lead. In our situation, we give preference to jobs we can do from home.

People have done everything from remote teaching (foreign languages? music?) to becoming an online travel agent to blog maintenance to moderating forums to operating ticket sales to freelance writing. Others have exploited skills or experience they've cultivated in the past. Waitressing, fixing computers, building crafts, driving trucks, tutoring children, carpentry, welding, painting, even home organization ... all can earn money.

Of course, these side gigs aren't likely to pay much. But income from numerous irons can get pretty darned close – $500 here, $1000 there, and pretty soon you're earning a decent collective paycheck.

Our philosophy is it's better to have ten income streams each paying $500 per month than a single income stream paying $5,000 per month. Losing one iron of the former is an annoyance. Losing the one single iron of the latter is devastating.

Anyway, all this is an introduction to an article I saw this morning entitled "'Polyworking' Is Gen-Z's Answer to Surviving a Fraught Job Market."

Ahh. The "many irons in the fire" approach we've endorsed for decades now has a snappy new name: Polyworking.

"This rising career trend, which involves juggling multiple jobs at once, has surged in popularity over the past few years, reshaping what it means to build a career in an era of instability and ambition," notes the article. "Nearly half [of Gen Zers] are working multiple jobs, with 47 percent clocking in at three or more gigs. And those numbers? They're still climbing. This isn't just about ambition; it's about adapting to survive in a world where one job is rarely enough. Unsurprisingly, the primary motivation is financial security. In a period of economic uncertainty, who wouldn't want to stockpile some extra cash each month?"

Well ... yeah. Of course. It just makes sense.

The "polyworking" people we've known over the years seldom worked multiple jobs for the joy of it, although of course some enjoyed the creative side of crafting or making cakes or whatever. Instead, people understood the importance on not relying purely on one income stream, only to be devastated when that stream disappeared.

The article does profile people doing work they love. One guy in New York City works as an indoor cycling teacher, dance choreographer, and freelance writer and author, and waxes eloquent about the joys of earning money by following his passions. He says, "The only way I'm able to handle working so many jobs at once is because I only work jobs I love."

The article mentions the need for balance to avoid burnout, which – trust me – is 100 percent true.

The article concludes with, "In the end, polyworking is less a trend than a recalibration of what modern work looks like. For some, it's about passion; for others, it's pure necessity. Either way, the message is clear: In today's economy, one job often just isn't enough – so people are making room for more."

What's old is new again. Let's hear it for "polyworking."