De-weaponize capitalism

Some millennial fun here. I am as you know a millennial. I am 30 and my friends are all millennials. All of us absolutely all of us are attempting to get a side hustle. Something that will make us some income so we aren’t so reliant on our jobs.

Millenials are the first generation who the will be poorer than their parents. The social contract has been completely broken and no longer exists. But we’re all still operating like it does???? Why?

“work hard and when you retire you will have a good life.” That is a bold and blatant lie.

“Work hard and climb the corporate ladder”-Also a lie.

Work hard in school, get good grades and get into a good university to get a good job” another unequivocal lie.

We’re much more aware that how you climb this social ladder is much more to do with luck and privilege. I have spoken before about how people ascribe wealth with virtue. This is false, there is no correlation. You can be hardworking and rich, you can also be lazy and rich. You can be hard working and poor as well as lazy and poor. What we are confusing is self made people. There is no such thing as a lazy entrepreneur but how many rich people are entrepreneurs? There are plenty of poor people with addiction issues but the same goes for rich people. No difference.

I digress. What I want to talk about is how we have had capitalism and the social contracts held over our heads like the sword of Damocles. As a result we as a generation are terrified of making moves in case the social contract actually does hold out. The paralysis keeps us in the system we know for a fact isn’t serving us.

We need to break away. Already my friends and I are doing it. Everyone has a side hustle, de-risking our income portfolio. The days of being able to trust your employer to keep a roof over your head are dead. Freelancing is the next thing Its simply a sliding scale of what is to come. We’re the generation of 0 hours contracts. Name 10 baby boomers or Gen X that you know are on a 0 hours contract. Nope? Me neither.

0 hours contracts shouldn’t be something we fear, its something we should welcome. The world is becoming less loyal. Marriage breakdown, pandemics, wars and all sorts have proved that we don’t value loyalty anymore, so employment contracts need to start specifying number of hours paid for and not a lot else. If you are a morning person like me, who enjoys starting before everyone else, work 7am-3pm. Then you are getting my most productive hours rather than shoe-horning me into hours that don’t suit me. If you are the opposite then that’s cool too. Work 12pm-8pm. We’ll try and overlap during the afternoon if we need a meeting. We do it for those who work with international markets. Why not regular people? Also, second and third jobs should be encouraged. A diverse portfolio means that people are no longer reliant on one workplace and as a result, they can work as much or as little as they like. It shouldn’t lead to less pay, because we need to move towards payment by results, not by hours worked. If you can get your job done in 20 hours not 40 then you get to keep that extra time. If you are doing extra hours, then those are free. Overtime is a should be for specific tasks for specific periods, if an employer is regularly using overtime then they need more staff.

We also need to work on our mindset. God bless Jesus for his wise words. “Give to Ceasar what is Cesar’s give to God what is God’s” One of the best bible quotes ever. Someone pays you for 35 hours? Then they gey 35 hours. Not 36 or 35.1. That’s free labour. Give them their 35 hours if they want more they can either pay for it in overtime or a new employee.

I worked at a place where there were 2 people in HR. Harpreet (woman) and Charles (man) Charles was Harpreets boss. But she ran the show. The entire function relied on her. She did everything and even directed him as to when he needed to do his job. When she left they hired 3 people to replace her. She was superwoman, she held a department together. But when she left the entire department fell apart. The sacrificial lamb is no good for succession planning. I used to be that gitl. The pressure to succeed and to be seen to be working hard is killing us.

I’ve had bosses who have worked at all hours of the night. Never to the benefit of the company, always sending bitter messages or rude messages. It should be banned. Work your hours and if you can’t complete it then inform your boss that you are under-resourced.

I’m not playing sacrificial lamb or martyr, not just because it was it doesn’t save you when people turn against you, but as someone whose dad passed recently, I learnt something so valuable. No one is going to talk about your extra hours when you die. Bosses? They come and go. People make permeant decisions based on temporary people. Its so bogus. Work takes over your life with dramas you wont remember in 6 months. I call them penny dramas.

I think we should make in mandatory, if a boss contacts you after your working hours are over you should be able to sue them for harassment and breach of your human rights. You have a right to live in peace.

When you have a diverse income portfolio another thing that happens if you start to value your time. You know what hourly wage you are getting from Job 1 and Job 2 and you know your limit before Job 3 can be X’d out of the equation. My personal side hustle is so that I can have the freedom to say no. Not just because I can, its because I must. Because in my chosen field, if you have a red flag and you ignore it, you can be personally liable. That will force me to strengthen my self preservation skills and stop being the “down for the ride, willing horse to be beaten to death.”

I’m not saying people shouldn’t work for a living, I’m encouraging people to work to live not live to work.

Grace and Courage.

Annetta Mother Smith.