As a sea change occurs within traditional office roles, many industries may be left playing catch-up when it comes to attracting top talent. With freelancing and small business becoming lucrative options, and more workplace environments becoming receptive to innovative alternatives, there’s never been a better time to figure out just how you can make your job work for you.
Why the Modern Job Needs to be Hacked
There’s something to be said for the status quo – it keeps things in line; it offers stability; people know that it works. And in the case of the workplace, it can be hard to let go of the status quo – that is, the methods and processes that have gotten a company this far. However, as the workforce becomes upended by new expectations and innovations, many employees are beginning to want something more. As seen in The New Face of the American Workforce, with the rise of the Internet has come a wave of outsourcing and collaboration. Companies have begun to realize that they can attain solid work from outside parties, which saves them the costs that would normally go towards fully tenured employees. These outside parties – many of them freelancers – have also benefited from this arrangement, because it offers them more freedom and creativity than being constrained by the traditional employment situation. Simply put, if you’re a business owner and you want your company to thrive, it’s a good idea to start adapting creative solutions to ensure that your staff is happy to come to work. And if you’re currently an employee stuck in a job that isn’t moving the way you want it to, then it’s time to take action and figure out what you can do to keep yourself motivated. After all, you spend much of your life at your job – you want it to be something you enjoy doing.
The Inside Job
This article from BBC.com defines hacking your job as “breaking the rules, typically in small ways, to net you greater efficiency from the working systems you’re stuck within.” If you’re firmly set inside the working world and want to look for ways to improve it – and your workday as a whole – here are some job hacks you can try: Invest your time in learning new software solutions to make work easier. This is one of the top workplace hacks to help make you more efficient, as well as removing an obstacle that can drag your day down. If you find that certain work programs are slowing your progress, start looking for similar alternatives that you can switch to. The BBC.com article uses the example of much-maligned office software like Microsoft Excel and Sharepoint, and suggests using Google Docs and Dropbox instead. If you step away from standard software, you might find your productivity increasing. Outsource tasks you hate. In many positions, there will be a certain amount of drudgery that you’ll have to undertake. But in a lot of areas, you should feel free to delegate or outsource tasks you dislike doing unto other people. This article emphasizes the need to “relinquish control” and spread the work out so you’re not overloaded, and a similar piece at Entrepreneur agrees that if you choose to outsource, you can free up your schedule while maintaining quality control. Make time for individual side projects. The Entrepreneur article author has this to say, and he’s not wrong: “Side projects are fun. They’re passion projects. They help me stay creative, empower me to make mistakes without consequence and provide me new opportunities to learn.” If you’ve got enough time on the side, try devoting yourself to learning new software, attending a class online or in the evenings, finding initiatives to give back to the community, or simply putting aside the time for a separate creative pursuit. Maintain regular office hours. Be strict about when you will and won’t be in the office. It’s all too easy to come in early or leave late, but that just creates the perception – for both yourself and others – that you have no other life besides your job. Put in your hours of hard work, then clock out and spend your off-time with family or non-work passion projects. This balance will help put an even priority on both your work and your home life.
The outside options
As the workforce continues to change, ideas about staffing changes with it. Although most companies do have a roster of full-time employees, many are continually searching for a more cost-effective alternative. This is where you can come in: If you’re having a difficult time hacking the modern-day office to make it work for you, perhaps it’s time to hack your job into a position where you work for yourself. Freelancers are without a doubt one of the fastest growing segments of the working population. For many, the idea of getting away from full-time employment, making one’s own hours and choosing one’s clients is irresistible – and becoming more of a potential reality than ever. This Intuit report on business trends states that contingent workers will make up more than 40 per cent of the workforce by 2020, possibly in response to full-time and full-benefit jobs becoming scarce. The time might be right for you to move away from the office and start channeling your skills into freelance work, particularly if you look to the technology, journalism, and marketing sectors. And with the growing popularity of co-working spaces, freelancers can still feel like part of a social office environment without the obligations. Startups and other small business ventures is another route you can take. If you have vision that has outgrown being a side project, you may want to consider going forward with bringing it to life as a legitimate business. If loving what you do means never working a day in your life, maybe having your own small business or startup is the key to making your passion into something bankable. Don’t Be Complacent With A Stagnant Job With so many options and types of employment currently available, there’s no need to feel stagnant at a job that doesn’t feel satisfying. Instead, try hacking your job in small, manageable ways to make your day more fulfilling and productive, or else go in a new direction entirely and create a job situation where everything is in your own hands. Hacking your job is something that may just be vital for anyone in the modern-day workforce, and it could just make you a better employee in the process. Have you ever performed any job hacks?
