The Beginning of the End of the 9:00 to 5:00 Work Week

By KG Farrell

Have you noticed that there is a new trend in earning money? It would seem that after watching Gen X and gen Z work their tails off for a crappy retirement and no vacation, that kind of work didn’t appeal to the Millennials and generations beyond.

There is a growing ‘gig economy’ emerging that allows people to be their own boss at their own time and in some cases, choose how much they earn while doing it. You can find an app that will allow you to do things you enjoy (or avoid things you don’t . Like people.) For instance, if you enjoy shopping you can sign up to be a personal shopper for an organization like Instacart. They’ll pay you for both time and mileage. You can be paid direct deposit straight into your account and the average instacart driver in the United States makes $13.88 per hour but can range from $7.25 to $25.59 depending on the area and city according to MoneyLion.com.

If you like pets you can walk dogs through an organization like Wagwalking.com. In fact, you can walk pets, babysit pets, board them, train them or even just do drop-ins. You can apply, be approved, book jobs and get paid all from an app that you download on your phone.

If driving is more your speed (forgive me for the pun) then you can pick up and deliver for companies like DoorDash or Spark (which is the app that delivers for Walmart and Sam’s Club.) You have very short interactions with clerks and cashiers while picking up orders already bagged and tagged for you. You follow the directions on the app to the recipients home and 90% of the time you are just dropping it off and taking a picture. No actual human contact on that end.

Even the entertainment industry is changing with platforms like YouTube. The last I checked, they were over 50 million channels on YouTube. That is a lot of independent workers. And of course you can be paid if you have enough followers on platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok. If writing is your gig, you can publish your own books now. No agents or publishers required.

I can remember back in the ’80s and ’90s, when working for one’s self was mostly a pipe dream. It took a lot of ingenuity, capital and contacts to be able to earn enough money to support yourself without having a regular 9 to 5 job. Once upon a time, working 9 to 5 was a good gig. It came with competitive pay and lots of benefits and even sometimes a pension. As those extras dwindled away, so did the interest in working for Corporate America.

I applaud the new generations for being less willing to accept the status quo. I think it is better for many people to be able to choose when they are available to work. Not everyone is at their peak performance in the morning hours. These kind of gigs allow you to work when you are energized and ready to work. That in turn makes you more efficient, it makes the work more fun and it makes your pay more available.

Did I mention that many of these online gig work platforms will pay you instantly when I job is completed? Can you imagine being able to go to work that day and come home with your money that day? I don’t have to imagine I work gig style jobs. When I’m not crafting spectacular articles for RSR, I deliver for DoorDash. I also babysit dogs in the afternoons, and I clean houses on the weekends. It sounds like a lot until you realize I only have to work about 3 hours a day. Luckily my budget is not very big so I am able to make what I need in that 3-hours per day. I work 6 days a week. But many other gig workers commit more time daily or work longer but only on certain days. That’s the beauty of this new kind of economy. It puts more control in the hands of the worker. They (we) decide what they make and when they make it. If you’ve been thinking about earning some extra money, check out the companies I mentioned above or search for ‘gig work’.

You might be surprised how easy it is to work for yourself these days.

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