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."

A cry for help (please see UPDATE)

An anonymous reader just left a startling comment as follows:
________________________

Patrice - Help Me!

My husband was laid off from work on Friday! I have been actively looking for employment since January with NO success. So we are literally at the end of our rope.

Thankfully I have some meager preparations (wheat, rice, beans, some meat in the freezer, etc). But it won't go far with a family of six.

I am just scared and can't think straight right now.

Can you help me figure out some ways to get through this?
________________________

C'mon, folks, put on your thinking caps. What advice can we offer to get her through this?

UPDATE: You've all been unbelievably generous in offering prayers and support to this family, so I thought you'd like to know more. This reader just sent me some additional information (certain details omitted for the sake of privacy) as follows:
________________________

Patrice,

I wrote the anonymous comment this morning asking you to help me. I was very surprised to see it posted on your regular blog instead of just in the comments section. I just wanted to provide a few more details that might shed more light on our situation.

I am totally blown away by the comment asking about starting a collection for us. Please ask folks to contact their local church leaders to assist people in this manner (as there are people hurting everywhere) and usually the pastor or other elders will know of quiet but desperate people within the congregation (that are not abusing others' generosity). However, I have joked that I know where a piece of cardboard is and I can spell, unlike some of the panhandlers. : )

Next, the rest of the details. My husband and I have been happily married 25 years and have 5 children (4 are still at home). We live in Texas (with family commitments that tie us here) and thankfully have a few acres and mobile home that are paid for. So if we can pay the taxes this January, we'll be fine on that account. We have timber to cut and burn for firewood (and cook on in the winter). We are very rural, so no public transit for us. We do have a small car payment, but should be able to manage. My husband is handy and can weld / build so he is offering estimates to anyone who needs anything done. We cook from scratch, can and preserve, attempt to garden (unsuccessfully), buy from Goodwill, are thrifty (Tightwad Gazette style), no TV, no credit card debt, etc. And yes, we had a small emergency fund, but my husbands' truck motor blew up and has to be overhauled so there went the emergency fund!

I know we will survive. And as believers, I know we are not to worry or fear. But I still just get scared when I know we were barely making it payday to payday as it was with a steady income.

I guess I just needed to hear your calm voice telling me a few action steps that I can take to help me help my precious family through these trying times. I think about those Depression-era photos of Pie Town, NM and the look of desperation in the eyes of the mothers in those photos. I hope someone doesn't take my picture anytime soon.

Thank you for your blog!

Finding dignity on your hands and knees

I’m going to get hammered for this, but I feel it’s something that needs to be said.

We need to stop looking to the government to bail us out, either individually or collectively, when times get tough. Doing so may save us in the short-term, but in the long-term we’re sacrificing our national and personal independence.

What do I mean by this?

I mean that a refusal to depend on one’s self and one’s circle of support (friends, family, etc.) and instead depending on government largess when times are tough inexorably leads down the road toward socialism and the forced redistribution of wealth and assets. Here’s a harsh but true column (the truth is often harsh) that discusses this further.

At a time when the difference between dependence and independence was literally life and death – such as when the early Pilgrims were struggling to stay alive in a harsh new land – the settlers tried the warm fuzzy strategy of socialism and learned it was a colossal flop that led towards starvation. (Here’s an essay on the subject.) The settlers only succeeded when it was mandated that it was every man for himself. Personal responsibility and private property were embraced, and Plymouth Colony subsequently flourished.

But now, when an unwillingness to work is rewarded and subsidized by a bloated and overspent government, socialism works just fine… until, as Margaret Thatcher so bitingly noted, we run out of other peoples’ money. And when that time comes, we will be left with millions of people who don’t know how to work. That time is rapidly approaching, if not already here.

Over the years this has become a serious annoyance to me – that people are unwilling to work, dammit.

We know some folks who, like so many others in this economy, lost their jobs. Naturally they’ve been diligently searching for new employment commensurate with their impressive experience and credentials. But in the meantime, to keep body and soul together, they’re pulling weeds.

Yes really. For several months, all throughout the summer, these people (in their 50’s) are on their hands and knees in other peoples’ yards and gardens, pulling weeds. “Where’s their dignity?” you might ask. I’ll tell you where their dignity is: it’s in their hands and knees, pulling weeds. These folks aren’t asking for a handout from the government. They are doing whatever it takes to keep aloft in a rotten economy. And I have far more respect for them because they’re willing to do “lowly” work. God bless them.

I know other unemployed people who would be horrified at the thought. Lower myself to pull weeds? Me? With my education, job skills, and experience? I’d rather collect government money and diligently search for a job that really reflects who I am.

Bull.

Look, I know unemployment benefits have saved a lot of peoples’ fannies. But it has also led (for many, not all) toward a careless attitude about employment. I know a man who dillied and dallied and went fishing and watched television for a year and a half while collecting unemployment and half-heartedly looking for a job. You would never catch him pulling weeds. Ever. It was only when his benefits were about to expire that he finally rallied himself and decided to really look for a job. Amazingly, even in this rural area rife with high unemployment, he found full-time work within a couple of weeks. Gee, go figure.

What most people don’t realize is the dangerous trend heralded by this government safety net. The dreaded condition of socialism doesn’t come in one blinding flash of lightening. No, it comes through creeping apathy, from a preference to go fishing rather than weed someone’s garden because, after all, there’s a safety net (unemployment benefits) to catch them. See my point? Government safety nets are fine and good for immediate help, but they also make people careless and indifferent. Creep creep.

My husband and I have been self-employed for seventeen years. We have no safety net beyond what we ourselves install. If our home business fails or reaches the point where it can no longer support us, we have no choice but to seek other sources of income. We cannot look to the government to help us because it won’t.

And therein, I believe, is the genesis of my passion on this topic. When you cannot look to the government to save your fanny, you have no choice but to sharpen your own skills and utilize your own resources in order to save your fanny. And – here’s a thought – most of the time your fanny gets saved through your own efforts. Gee, go figure.

Please don’t misinterpret this to mean I find no compassion for those who cannot work. There is a world of different between cannot and will not. That’s why the classic verse of 2 Thessalonians 3:10 was phrased the way it was: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” It doesn’t say cannot work, it says will not. (Here are other Bible verses that support a work ethic.)

Like the early Pilgrims who discovered that starvation was an excellent motivator, the only thing that will save this nation is if millions of people who are waiting for the government to save them will get off their butts and start weeding gardens. Or waiting tables. Or scrubbing toilets. Or mopping floors. Or delivering pizzas. Or doing whatever it takes to be able to lift their chins with dignity and say, “I refuse to let someone else save my fanny.”

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now.