Do you work a typical 9-to-5 job?
Yeah, me neither.
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While these traditional , 9-5, Monday-Friday jobs with a salary and benefits still exists, more and more of us are finding ourselves in situations where we have to piece together whatever work we can in order to pay the bills.
It turns out there’s a name for it.
Yes, there’s a name, and I already hate it: polywork.
The name makes sense: ‘poly’ means ‘many’, while ‘work’ means…uh, ‘work.’
In short, if you have multiple gigs, then you’re probably a polyworker.
We heard about it in this tweet.
Writer Alan MacLeod posted this earlier in the month, along with several examples of articles referring to ‘polyworking.’
It kind of makes sense that there’s a buzzword, because ‘working many jobs in order to survive’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
The headlines kind of paint things in a positive light.
All of the articles shared frame the concept in a positive way, like millennials are choosing to have a terrible work-life balance and no benefits while turning their noses up at traditional work.
Good for you.
It isn’t like working multiple jobs is always a bad thing. I have multiple gigs and it actually works for me. Still, there are plenty of times when I wish I had a more traditional job instead.
It isn’t necessarily a trend of the pandemic.
While the pandemic has pushed many employees into working from home, working from home isn’t the same thing as polyworking. If you’re working just one job from home, then it just doesn’t qualify as polywork.
Are people truly gunning for this?
The old model involved getting a job after high school or college, buying a house and a car, and keeping the job until retirement. The new model is to find half a dozen random jobs and struggle to survive.
They’re not wrong.
Living expenses outpaced minimum wage long ago in most areas, which means that people working minimum wage jobs have long had to find several different jobs in order to keep a roof over the head.
This isn’t new.
We’re all selling products, and we’re all products.
Polyworking could encompass a wide range of jobs, and yet it feels like we’re all involved in roughly the same hustle: trying to create stuff that will appeal to multiple demographics while adhering to Facebook algorithms.
Don’t get it twisted.
I think most of us accept that this is how the workplace functions nowadays, but I certainly resent the notion that this is a fun, freeing way to get paid. It can be incredibly stressful.
And yeah, ‘polywork’ sounds way dystopian.
Are you a polyworker?
If so, how’s it going for you so far? Let us know how you’re making money and whether you’re happy with it. Also, make sure to tell us what you really think of the term ‘polywork’ in the comments.
