Pyjamas and backpacks: Surviving in the gig economy

Mrcommuter

For a long time, the world (i.e. ‘expert’ columnists on the web) didn’t understand millennials. One particular puzzle was their refusal to be tied down to a job. Instead, they’d flit from one to the other, whether they were waiting tables or holding down corporate internships.

Initially, ‘social commentators’ blamed it on impatience.  They assumed this generation was unwilling to put in the time. They were accused of expecting instant raises and promotions, of wanting to leap frog into management. They were described as upstart know-it-alls that disregarded authority and disrespected the old guard.

Their approach to life has been blamed on a culture of ‘participation awards’ and raising ‘snowflakes’. Society was quick to blame how they turned out, taking no responsibility for bringing them up that way. And then an interesting thing happened … people from other generations began to adopt the millennial way of thinking.

The new migrant worker

They came in all shapes and sizes. There were stay-at-home mums who needed mental stimulation and empty nesters. Both missed the sense of achievement that comes with earning income. Some were late-in-life divorcees trying to jump-start their world view. Others were teenagers looking for weekend gigs. Some wanted to work in pyjamas and have more time for videogames, others wanted to travel the world and learn new cultures.

All these people need flexible work hours with enough income to sustain their lifestyles. Online business offers a viable solution, because they can work from anywhere, as long as they have access to the internet. The kind of work available varies. You can use an app to charge scooters. You can write SEO articles. You can sell photos to sites like Shutterstock.

You can open a shop on Etsy. You can trade forex or bitcoin. You can work as remote customer care or tech support. You can become a social media manager, or a campaign influencer. You could be hired as a virtual assistant or freelance designer. Or you could come up with some new niche that no one has considered, like pet sitting.

Making it work

You need two things to survive from gig to gig. One, you need a strategy for finding work. And two, you need to drastically limit your living expenses. If you’re a backpacking freelancer, you can stay in hostels, couch surf, use Airbnb, or live in camp sites. Just make sure your selected option offers internet access and charging ports.

On the other hand, you could move to a smaller residence or a more remote city where rent is cheaper. You might even build yourself a tiny house if you have the capital, or go off grid. There are plenty of guides on paring your cost of living down to essentials. You’ll also learn how to stretch every dollar, so you can survive between gigs.

Join a work platform to find jobs, or walk around your current neighbourhood talking to people. Observation is the best headhunter, and as long as you’re not looking for millions, there’s always some unexpected gig you can do for money. Good luck!

Telework: how, where and when

Mrcommuter

Exercise an activity, as an employee or a collaborator, without the physical movement of the person employed and with greater flexibility in terms of working time. This is how we can define teleworking , not yet widespread in our country, but consolidated in many economies of industrialized countries . There are many activities that can be done in telework , both as public employees, both as hired or collaborators of private companies . This is a form of work that offers delocalization in the face of time and money saving both by the company or the body, and by the workersame. In recent years, teleworking, although a patchy leopard, is also spreading in the Public Administration , as well as many private companies with the formula of teleworkinghave often carried out plans for reorganization and rationalization of the workforce with benefits of medium and long period.

To find companies that take on the formula of telework , even if they are not many, just contact the employment centers. On the other hand, the telework offers offered by private companies can be found by visiting the specialized portals of the sector. When we talk about teleworking , and therefore working at a distance, we are not referring to unrequent jobs , and often fraudulent ones, such as those linked to chains and pyramidal systems, but to activities that are normally linked to data processing, to information technology , to manage databases remotely and so on.

If the form of teleworking is framed by the company with a “standard” contract, then all the rights of an employee are acquired without any particular differences . But there is still to say that predominantly the employment in telework is almost always referable to a self-employed , in possession of VAT , or that is paid with the “classic” occasional payment withholding tax . In this case, therefore, we talk about compensation and agreements that clearly, even if the work is remote, must always be “crystallized” through the signature between the parts of a specialprivate writing .

How to find a telework

Mrcommuter
Looking for a new telework? Do you need to work from home and would you like to embark on such a career? Here’s what to do.

Today everyone loves telework as it offers great flexibility and also allows companies to save costs. But how to find a new opportunity to work comfortably in a house? Here are some methods to succeed in this enterprise.

First, take a look at the new job advertisements , starting a search in the local newspapers . Internet then offers a great quantity of offers but they must be carefully studied to avoid the many online scams that today abound on the Internet.

Inserting your own curriculum vitae online can help, especially if you have certain skills and qualifications. Another advantage of being on LinkedIn or on websites like Hotjobs, for example, is that they can be easily found by employers who need new employees in the company.

A fourth option is to open the phone book and to call companies operating in their area of ​​reference to see if they need new staff, then contacting them one by one to receive an answer. 

Finally, the fifth way to become a teleworker is to create an opportunity : for example, instead of trying to be hired as a home-based employee, you can consider starting your own business as a virtual assistant. You can offer your services to many companies.