It’s been nearly two weeks since I officially left permanent employment in the corporate sector and I managed to get my first small gig. Client in question is a large firm and they needed me to help do some packing for a day. Pay wasn’t great but it was a start to doing something in my post corporate existence and a few pennies coming in is better than no money coming in at all.
I guess you could say that it was my official return to what is being hailed as the ‘gig economy’ or the economy where everyone is an odd job laborer. Many have lambasted the gig economy was being a destroyer of permanent jobs and the natural social fabric but to me, the gig economy is something worth celebrating. The gig economy is what you’d call the natural state of affairs for free-spirits like me, who aren’t great with money or natural business people but at the same time we resent the trade off that full-time employment expects of you in return for that steady pay cheque.
There has to be something in between being a full-time employee and a businessman. It’s become ever truer since technology has made it such that things like “outsourcing” having become viable options for big businesses and the lifecycle of companies and industries have become comparatively shorter. The days of spending decades with a single employer are dying and rather than lament this, one needs to adapt to the changing times.
There are two aspects to the Gig Economy that need to be looked at. The first is the area that has allowed ordinary folk to enter industries that previously required higher costs. The best example is Uber that allowed anyone with a car to become a taxi driver. Established taxi drivers around the world have taken a hit but the Uber platform (including its many rivals) has allowed many people around the world to earn more money ferrying people around. The Uber platform has not only disrupted the taxi business, it has also made transport systems more accessible.
Another example is Airbnb, which has allowed anyone with a spare room to become an innkeeper. This is currently illegal in Singapore. The arguments being that allowing short term stays compromises the security of a community by bringing in strangers. There is no evidence to support this and proponents of this arguments are probably people who are unable to answer a vital question – what do you expect someone who has a mortgage and been recently retrenched in an age where jobs becoming scarcer to do?
Governments need to ask the vital question of why we should not allow car and house owners to utilize their assets (cars and houses) to create an income independent of day jobs. No doubt some regulation will be needed but by and large, it is easier and better society to have people utilizing their assets to have an income outside their day jobs so that in an emergency (ie retrenchment), they have an income and do not look to the government for a handout. Uber and its competitors have shown that they’re more “tax-honest” than conventional taxi drivers. An economy of “Uber Drivers” is better than an economy of “Welfare Recipients.”
The second aspect of the gig economy involves the workers. In a way, someone like me can survive in the gig economy. I started late in the corporate rate race and was unlikely to build a conventional career. As such, I am able to accept that I will probably never have a steady corporate job until the day I retire. However, I have done enough to show I have some useful skills and I’ve been around enough for people to throw me a bone. My focus in the last two weeks was just getting back into circulation rather than focusing on job hunting and low and behold someone gave me a gig.
I’ve also been employed long enough to build up my provident fund savings to a level where I can sustain my biggest bills – the mortgage and my kid is getting independent. I’m also lucky enough to have kept the restaurant gig going so that I have a regular income which comes with provident fund payments (the restaurant owner needs to pay me provident fund payments because he needs to show he’s employing Singaporeans). My severance pay has helped keep the creditors quiet and I can afford to wait for bigger gigs and dare I say, I am not in a wild rush to get another corporate job.
So, the gig economy can work for someone like me. It is not something I would recommend to someone fresh out of school for the simple reason that you don’t have a proven track record of having any particular skill. For me, I have proven that I can get people covered by the press. I have proven that I can deal with angry creditors and I can collect debts (essential skills in liquidation). I am also flexible enough to wait tables and clean floors, should I need something to tide me over until the better things come along. Along as the people who know I can do certain things are around, I am likely to get a gig or two.
Someone who does not have a recognized skill has to “sell” the fact that they have a skill and they have to get through the usual corporate doors. I’ve also had the fortune of working with bosses that had recognizable brand names like Jeffrey Tsang (Founder of Asher Communications) and most prominently PN Balji. Getting my other gigs would have been tougher without them.
You got to know people in the gig economy. My Dad always said that while he never invested in “assets” like houses or shares, he invested in people. He cultivated people like Edmund Koh, President of UBS Asia Pacific and former Managing Director of DBS Bank Consumer Banking. As such, Dad was able to get jobs from DBS even when his business slowed.
For me, I remember 2012 as a year where I not only had a former boss (PN Balji) throwing me a few bones (Litigation support job of “Guy Neal vs Ku De Ta), I had my junior from my agency days, Glenn Lim, who is now head of Corporate Communications at Tower Transit, giving me work (Singapore International Photography Festival). I could survive because people the people I had worked with were willing to feed me. It’s a different story when you’ve never worked and you don’t have contacts who will feed you.
There’s no stopping the gig economy. It will grow as companies find cheaper labour solutions. However, young people still need to find a place where they can learn skills, network and grow before they contemplate surviving in the gig economy.
I guess you could say that it was my official return to what is being hailed as the ‘gig economy’ or the economy where everyone is an odd job laborer. Many have lambasted the gig economy was being a destroyer of permanent jobs and the natural social fabric but to me, the gig economy is something worth celebrating. The gig economy is what you’d call the natural state of affairs for free-spirits like me, who aren’t great with money or natural business people but at the same time we resent the trade off that full-time employment expects of you in return for that steady pay cheque.
There has to be something in between being a full-time employee and a businessman. It’s become ever truer since technology has made it such that things like “outsourcing” having become viable options for big businesses and the lifecycle of companies and industries have become comparatively shorter. The days of spending decades with a single employer are dying and rather than lament this, one needs to adapt to the changing times.
There are two aspects to the Gig Economy that need to be looked at. The first is the area that has allowed ordinary folk to enter industries that previously required higher costs. The best example is Uber that allowed anyone with a car to become a taxi driver. Established taxi drivers around the world have taken a hit but the Uber platform (including its many rivals) has allowed many people around the world to earn more money ferrying people around. The Uber platform has not only disrupted the taxi business, it has also made transport systems more accessible.
Another example is Airbnb, which has allowed anyone with a spare room to become an innkeeper. This is currently illegal in Singapore. The arguments being that allowing short term stays compromises the security of a community by bringing in strangers. There is no evidence to support this and proponents of this arguments are probably people who are unable to answer a vital question – what do you expect someone who has a mortgage and been recently retrenched in an age where jobs becoming scarcer to do?
Governments need to ask the vital question of why we should not allow car and house owners to utilize their assets (cars and houses) to create an income independent of day jobs. No doubt some regulation will be needed but by and large, it is easier and better society to have people utilizing their assets to have an income outside their day jobs so that in an emergency (ie retrenchment), they have an income and do not look to the government for a handout. Uber and its competitors have shown that they’re more “tax-honest” than conventional taxi drivers. An economy of “Uber Drivers” is better than an economy of “Welfare Recipients.”
The second aspect of the gig economy involves the workers. In a way, someone like me can survive in the gig economy. I started late in the corporate rate race and was unlikely to build a conventional career. As such, I am able to accept that I will probably never have a steady corporate job until the day I retire. However, I have done enough to show I have some useful skills and I’ve been around enough for people to throw me a bone. My focus in the last two weeks was just getting back into circulation rather than focusing on job hunting and low and behold someone gave me a gig.
I’ve also been employed long enough to build up my provident fund savings to a level where I can sustain my biggest bills – the mortgage and my kid is getting independent. I’m also lucky enough to have kept the restaurant gig going so that I have a regular income which comes with provident fund payments (the restaurant owner needs to pay me provident fund payments because he needs to show he’s employing Singaporeans). My severance pay has helped keep the creditors quiet and I can afford to wait for bigger gigs and dare I say, I am not in a wild rush to get another corporate job.
So, the gig economy can work for someone like me. It is not something I would recommend to someone fresh out of school for the simple reason that you don’t have a proven track record of having any particular skill. For me, I have proven that I can get people covered by the press. I have proven that I can deal with angry creditors and I can collect debts (essential skills in liquidation). I am also flexible enough to wait tables and clean floors, should I need something to tide me over until the better things come along. Along as the people who know I can do certain things are around, I am likely to get a gig or two.
Someone who does not have a recognized skill has to “sell” the fact that they have a skill and they have to get through the usual corporate doors. I’ve also had the fortune of working with bosses that had recognizable brand names like Jeffrey Tsang (Founder of Asher Communications) and most prominently PN Balji. Getting my other gigs would have been tougher without them.
You got to know people in the gig economy. My Dad always said that while he never invested in “assets” like houses or shares, he invested in people. He cultivated people like Edmund Koh, President of UBS Asia Pacific and former Managing Director of DBS Bank Consumer Banking. As such, Dad was able to get jobs from DBS even when his business slowed.
For me, I remember 2012 as a year where I not only had a former boss (PN Balji) throwing me a few bones (Litigation support job of “Guy Neal vs Ku De Ta), I had my junior from my agency days, Glenn Lim, who is now head of Corporate Communications at Tower Transit, giving me work (Singapore International Photography Festival). I could survive because people the people I had worked with were willing to feed me. It’s a different story when you’ve never worked and you don’t have contacts who will feed you.
There’s no stopping the gig economy. It will grow as companies find cheaper labour solutions. However, young people still need to find a place where they can learn skills, network and grow before they contemplate surviving in the gig economy.
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