My dad, a hardworking mechanic in his early 60s, has spent his entire adult life at the same company. A second-generation Italian, whose father migrated here in 1952, Dad has risen to an alarm clock, six days a week, for the best part of 40 years.
We chat on the phone every couple of months, and as I fill him in on life in Melbourne, he’ll ask, How’s work going? Will this course get you a good job at the end of it? What do you mean by freelance? But is it good money? Are you saving?
My dad’s view towards work is one I’ve heard many times before.
Come the 2000s, millennials and Generation Y began entering the workforce. And with that, we were given a stern warning not to jump ship too often. To keep stability on our CVS.
Hiring managers and prospective employers grilled us on our reasons for leaving jobs. During interviews, it was the question that broke us into sweats as we nervously gave our spiels, why did you leave?
If our answers were insufficient, we were a business risk. If we offered up enough peace of mind, companies might have taken a punt and employed us.
Born in 1984, I possess a lot of the characteristics of an early Gen Y. I place , while enjoying the freedom of choice, variety, and middle-class proximity.
With working class roots, I dropped out of school early and maintained moderate literacy skills; I’ve been broke but had access to mature-age tertiary education; in spite of these barriers, I forged pathways into the corporate world.
Which is to say I have plenty to be grateful for.
I have left jobs after nine months, 11 months, and sometimes six months
I’ll admit, though, I ignored the advice of the baby boomers when it came to job stability. I have left jobs after nine months, 11 months, and sometimes six months. The longest stint I have had in any one organisation was three years. This was partially due to me transitioning from a business administrative career into a creative one (I started from the ‘bottom’ again), as well as my ongoing quest to work with organisations that advocate the values they promise to. My CV, you could say, is a feat of voluntary flightiness.
I’m not alone though, a which surveyed more than 10,000 millennials across 36 countries, reported that less than half of respondents believe that “corporations behave ethically and that business leaders are committed to helping improve society”. The report showed a significant drop than the previous year, indicating a decline in the faith Gen Y’s possess in businesses and their contributions. Further, the survey revealed strong trends amongst young workers in search of diverse environments beyond the mere “mechanical filling of quotas”. These factors combined, and it’s no wonder we so often seek out new ventures.
The variety I forged earlier in my career, in spite of conflicting counsel, has begun to pay off. As a content writer, producer, and graphic designer, businesses have come to rely on professionals like myself to stay competitive and afloat.
Widely known as the gig-economy, we are seeing an increasing number of short-term and freelance opportunities, and the breadth of job criterias is more explicit than ever before
The commercial playing field has changed remarkably since I entered the workplace in 2001. Widely known as the , we are seeing an increasing number of short-term and freelance opportunities, and the breadth of job criterias is more explicit than ever before.
Disruption, vast innovation, and the need for business agility, combined with a greater focus on content, user-experience, and business realisation, has altered the white-collar realm significantly.
In this climate, businesses, NGOs and government agencies must innovate, re-engage and respond to their audiences through a diverse portfolio of new media channels. The result is a growing need for engineers, coders, and content producers, thus a modernised labour force where diverse skillsets are heavily sought after.
It’s within this environment that I have written for the public sector’s large-scale programme realm, produced content for grassroots initiatives, created the brand voice for an elite skin clinic, created new identities for start-ups, directed and produced video shoots, published commissioned essays, and strategised content for millennial-focused financial services businesses.
Had I not taken on a few too many roles earlier in my trajectory; had I instead had the good sense to stay put more often, I would not have conquered any of these projects with the same level of confidence and capability.
Had I not taken on a few too many roles earlier in my trajectory; had I instead had the good sense to stay put more often, I would not have conquered any of these projects with the same level of confidence and capability.
Unnerved by the road less travelled, my dad’s outlook of career stability is one I can empathise with - he’s a baby boomer himself, raised in the residuum of the great depression. His generation was encoded with an emphasis on security, and the yielding of wealth and prosperous longevity. Combine this with the generational rise of lifestyle marketing designed to control everyday citizens of labour, and I can understand his way of thinking.
Dad has paid his mortgage off, and he is on the home stretch to a humble retirement. I make an okay wage, living month-to-month a lot of the time. Sometimes I joke that it’s a tin-tomatoes week this week (just how many different meals can you make with tomatoes?) and I do worry about my financial future.
Other weeks, the payoff is more significant and I’m able to put some money away for a rainy day. But more importantly, I’m working with purpose, self-conviction, and on projects that matter to me with the skills and boldness required to.
It’s a currency you can’t put a value on.
Laura La Rosa is a proud Darug woman now living on Wurundjeri land. She is a writer, producer, graphic designer, and the founder of creative collective, . You can follow Laura on Twitter .
