Many millennials I know tell me that they would become a boss one day. Of course most of them said it’s because their current boss treats them badly or pays them too little. By becoming their own boss, they are supposed to have ‘better’ bosses (usually it’s their customers!) and they would usually earn higher pay (since they keep all the profits?) Some good real estate negotiators (RENs) tell me that they could wake up at 10am without their agency principals calling them. When I asked a few more questions, actually in the beginning, they work much harder than most jobs; bringing potential buyers to view homes even on a Sunday morning or many weekday evenings! So, RENs get to enjoy only AFTER working very hard for some time. To those who aspire to have an easier life without working hard, well, it does not really work. In the U.S, this is true as well; millennials wanting more freedom in terms of flexible hours. Here’s one latest article in USA Today.
Basically, what these millennials wanted is to be the boss of their own time. On an overall basis for the whole workforce, 57 percent says that they are interested to take up a freelance job. About one quarter said that they will be a freelancer within the next 5 years. This is extremely high because it meant that more than half would be freelancers versus full-time employees! Well, if all those interested to do so, really do so. Meanwhile, 4 out of 10 millennials say they intend to leave their full time employers to be freelancers within 5 years. The reason for this new mindset is because they do not wish to miss out on important life events, from taking time to enrich their kids’ lives to caring for elders. According to the article, freelancing can have its drawbacks. For example, a steady paycheck (salary) or even that human interaction that people value in the workforce. The reports says that employers have a stronger chance of holding onto their staffs if they’re willing to offer the flexibility many of their employees crave. Do refer to that full article in USATODAY here.
Actually, freelancing may not mean a lower pay and it also does not mean that employers would face disruptions in their operations. Some finance people could become a freelancer to a few companies instead of one and works in each company for a specified periods every week. Truth is, smaller organisations may not have enough finance job to justify hiring a full-time finance person. So, in this case, instead of the RM4,000 which they have to pay, they may be willing to pay RM2,000 to an experience finance person who comes into the office once or twice per week and it does not even need to be for the whole day! Three SMEs may do this and the finance person actually has a pay of RM6,000 per month instead of the typical RM4,000 if they were to work full-time for an organisation. MANY years ago, my Accounting lecturer did just that and he told us that his pay was far higher than full-time lecturers in the college. He scheduled his lessons accordingly and he taught in three different colleges in the Klang Valley. For the college, this is huge savings because having a full-time lecturer sitting in the office without classes is not productive at all. Well, the trends usually start with the more advanced nations. Since this will be super common in the U.S. within the next 5 years, get ready for freelancing to become very common in Malaysia within 10 years? By the way, we should not forget that many directors in public listed companies may be directors in a few of them and not just one. WOW. Happy working, flexibly!
written on 18 April 2018
Next suggested article: Honestly, what is job security today?
