To think “Side Hustle” can get in the bin?

[courageiscontagious]

I am so sick of my feed being full of people “girl bossing” their “side hustle” like it’s a good thing.

it feels like propaganda to make us think there is anything empowering about having to work a SECOND JOB in this dumpster fire of an economy.

One generation ago a man could buy a house and support his family on his one income with only a high school education.

Now, my husband and I have five degrees between us and we both have to bust our arses to support fewer children than my parents had.

FUCK SIDE HUSTLE CULTURE. It’s just another way to make us blame ourselves for being poor when there are systemic and structural factors fucking us over.

end rant.

My main hustle almost kills me most weeks tbh, I can’t even countenance another job right now.

I have two bachelors and one masters and DH has two bachelors.

The money a woman earns that she can spend on trinkets.

Absolutely agree! I work a FT job and it just isn't enough anymore, recently started an additional job 16 hours a week. My partner also works an additional job every Sunday. This is no way to live! I'm SO exhausted.
Most of the people I meet at my new job are doing additional work too. I overheard one of the guys say he needs to make X amount deliverooing this week so he can do a food shop. What on earth.

Yeah it is annoying. One time in one hundred somebody's 'side hustle' will be a) something they enjoy, and b) lucrative, but most of the time it's just glamorising being on the bones of your arse. See also 'van life' as previously mentioned.

I think you're talking about a particular demographic years ago with just the one job, that certainly didnt apply to our family in the 70s, 80s and 90s, my mum did cleaning jobs, baby sitting, part time jobs.

Most people I know, including me have always had lots of other jobs, part time jobs on top of our main jobs. This isnt new and isnt about 'this' economy

Pin money was also literally to buy hair pins, there are millions of them in the Thames. Only women needed them so it then represented what women needed personally.

I’m an author and the side hustle is a huge way of life- a number of people use side hustle just as a way to get by because books don’t make them money. This can be anything from motivation of other writers, running writing retreats, proofreading, recording audio for audiobooks for others, ghostwriting. Some make money from TikTok or you tube, some life coach because they got through tough times and want to help others. Some seem more worthy than others (in particular my friend gets shit from everyone on being a life coach but actually she’s gotten people out of funks and helped them move on with life).

People are willing to pay for their Netflix, phones, apps etc every money, I think as long as people aren’t preyed on or taken advantage of, that’s when I think side hustles aren’t ok. Otherwise yes it’s so hard to make money now so I think to each their own.

ps I love girl boss, it gets me through the nights I’m up writing at 2 in the morning with work the following day as the kids sleep, hoping some day that my books will sell the way they sometimes do!

Van life = absolutely.

trying to romanticise poverty.

Agree with OP. Dh currently has 4 jobs in order to bring in enough money and I had two almost full time jobs until recently. We were fucked by the 35 day Liz Truss debacle and our mortgage went up £800 in 6 months.

Yes you're right, I think these are US terms, though they have probably crossed the Atlantic by now like a lot of American terminology.

”Girl Boss” is predatory language used by MLMs (thanks Hannah Alonso and Kiki Chanel).

“Side Hustle” is that shitty hustle culture
perpetuates by people like the “Diary of a CEO” dude who is not as good at business as he thinks he is. All bathe your face in ice water and get up at 5am. It’s just sales and nothing else.

“Lean-in” is what pisses me off.

No, it’s nothing to do with MLM. It’s a small, side job one does alongside their main job to make extra money. Though it shows enterprise and resourcefulness, in many cases it distracts so much from the main hustle that people don’t progress as quickly in their career. Where I work we ban people from being employed anywhere else and side hustles have to be declared and you must confirm that they do not detract time and attention from your job (and strictly can’t be done during work hours).

I think it's a bit of a myth that a family could once live on one unskilled workers wage, buy a nice house and raise five kids and go on two holidays a year.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s, my parents were semi-skilled apprentice trained workers and both worked full time for 10 years to buy their house before My brother and I were born. We lived in Yorkshire where property was cheap but they could only afford a 2 up 2 down terrace in need of renovation. There were no foreign holidays, no computers or new Tvs or the latest gadgets, no nice car- we had a second hand cheap Russian Lada, dad spent weekends renovationg the house himself, we wore second hand clothes, had second hand bikes and played at the local park. We never ate out, no takeaways, cooking was all from scratch on a tight budget, no childcare and mum went back to work as soon as we started school. I had to share a small bedroom with my brother.

Most families on low paid jobs lived in rented, council houses or very small houses without all the mod cons in the 70s and 80s. I remember most of my friend's mums working at least part time in those days once children were at school.

Families expect to have a lot more now.

Insane.

all these levers are pulled by people who will be just-fine-thank-you regardless of the vicissitudes of the economy they are fucking up like they are playing SimCity.

Liz truss is not worrying about paying her mortgage.

Agreed, my interpretation too

I take your points, but I would say one parent staying home until the youngest is in school is a luxury out of reach for most now.

*Side hustles where you work for yourself (like an Etsy presence) have to be declared. Side hustles working for someone else are not allowed.

Ok this annoys me.

I was recently offered a paid board of directors position and my main job refused permission for me to do it.

while insisting that a 2% pay rise across the board was fair and reasonable.

if you don’t want people having second jobs don’t ban it- pay them so they don’t need a second job!

Yes. Work more and more and more. Earn more by working more so you can make ends meet.

It's a joke. Played on everyone. And we still strive because we want to survive.

UK it's called moonlighting i.e. having a part time or evening job as well as your main job. Side hustle is American term for the same.

My DS is 25 and his side hustle earns around 1/1.3k per month, he’s managed to save over 100k and is just about to buy a 280k property on his own.

They’re not hair pins, they’re for clothes. Pins were used extensively in women’s clothing. For instance in the portrait of Jane Seymour in a red dress you can see a whole line of pins holding the placard of her gown on.

A second job (like yours marking essays) with guaranteed wages or being paid ad hoc to complete surveys isn’t a ‘hustle’ IMO. There is an organisation paying you, ie no ‘hustle’.

Your parents sound rude!

I take your point and I think we are a similar age so I know what you’re talking about, but a lot of these things simply didn’t exist - there were no home computers, hardly any childcare providers, far fewer takeaways etc. So it’s not that people did without and denied themselves because these things weren’t a feature of life and everyone was in the same boat.