Why I'll never work in a job again

Don't be fooled into thinking your job is secure: the risk is just hiding.

May 30, 2023

The redundancy reckoning

Redundancies are hitting the headlines right now, especially in tech. In the last month in New Zealand, we’ve seen Xero announce 800 job cuts and Sky Television confirming 170 staff would be made redundant. The ‘tech wreck’ has hit Australia too, with thousands of jobs going in the last 12 months.

Earlier this year, The Warehouse Group and MediaWorks both signalled lay-off plans. Amazon’s 27,000+ person layoff will hit New Zealand AWS staff.

In education, The University of Otago announced on April 20 that several hundred academic and professional staff will be made redundant, and just last week Victoria University of Wellington signalled up to 260 jobs will go. This is on top of the 200 to 1000 jobs expected to be lost with the Te Pukenga merger.

Auckland Transport faces the loss of 150 jobs in an Auckland Council slash and burn that’s already axed 500 ‘nice to have’ jobs and has another 200 cuts in the pipeline.

Globally, over 168,000 jobs have already been lost in tech alone, including huge cuts at giants Google and Meta, slashing 12,000 and 10,000 jobs respectively.

Your job is not the security you think it is

In my work with self-employed professionals through Consultants of Choice, I hear a lot of people worried about the loss of security that would come from leaving their job. The 'risk' of financial ruin seems too high, after many years of receiving a steady paycheck. This fear is misplaced.

I’ve been self-employed since I was 25 and at any given time since starting my business, I've had multiple clients, projects and income streams.

Right now, I earn money through selling books and online courses, running training programmes like Not An MBA and Consultants of Choice, speaking at conferences and events, writing newsletters to paid subscribers to and delivering projects for a client base of over 100 previous clients and over 10,000 interested leads.

If one client cancels a contract, I get sick or injured and can't work, or I have a slow month in sales, I've got lots of options for how to pivot and adjust, along with other streams of income to cushion the blow.

This seems much safer to me than depending on the benevolence of a single employer. Where are you left after a redundancy or a restructure? A payout, if you’re lucky, and then back to begging for a new single income stream.

Build an antifragile career

In his book Antifragile: Things that Gain From Disorder, Nicholas Taleb talks about managing career risk, contrasting the lives of the office worker and what he calls the 'artisan' - a self-employed professional with multiple clients.

The artisan, he argues, is more robust to volatility in the marketplace, because while there is a lot of daily volatility in clients, rates and demand, they are more flexible in the face of large shocks.

The permanent employee, by contrast, has just one source of income. Their financial risk is hidden, or 'smoothed' by a regular paycheck - but a disruption leads to a mark on permanent record, or total loss of income.

A bad month for a self-employed plumber might lead to a reduction in their client base and necessitate a change in marketing tactics, while a bad month for the person as an employee could lead to redundancy, termination, and the need to replace all of their income in one fell swoop.

Security, by way of employment, is nothing but rigidity and hidden risk. The recent wave of redundancies has made this clearer than ever. Self-employment is scary, and it requires faith in your abilities, but in many ways, it’s the safer bet.

Take the leap

If you're putting off starting your side hustle or leaving your job because you're worried about the risk, this might be a useful reframe to help you on your way.

(And if you're looking for help, coaching and support, take a look at Consultants of Choice to give you a leg-up.)

Til next week,

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