By Shane Rodgers
For most of the past 200 years the idea of work has revolved around turning up at a factory, worksite or office, putting in the required hours and receiving a “pay cheque” from the company at the end of the week.
In the post-industrial age this model has mostly worked well and much of our societal wealth has been driven through the growth of corporations delivering goods and services at scale.
As we move deeper into the 21st Century, there are emerging signs of a deep generational disruption to this approach.
While Baby Boomers and Generation X mastered and championed the corporation model, as Generation Z faces the realty of their working lives, they are not so convinced. 9 to 5? Every day? WTF? SMH*. ROFL**.
In fact, a plethora of international studies leave no doubt that a very large chunk of young people circa 2024 mostly want one boss – themselves.
A survey by Wakefield Research in the United States in 2022 found 60 percent of teenagers were more interested in working for themselves than in a traditional job. This followed a 2020 study by the Nielson group which found 54 percent of Generation Z wanted to start their own company.
The British Future Founders: Understanding the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs report found 51 percent of Brits aged 14-25 were thinking seriously about starting their own business.
Microsoft reported survey results last year showing 48 percent of American young people already had business side hustles.
A 2023 survey of 1000 Australians aged 18 to 26 by internet domain company GoDaddy found the number of young people launching “small ventures” had doubled in a single year.
Interestingly, the number of sole proprietors in Australia jumped by more than 150,000 (24%) between 2018 and 2023 (630,000 to 784,000).
It is too early to call this as a clear trend given the overlay of gig work in a tough cost-of-living environment, but it may be telling that this type of business entity is the fastest growing.
If the changed generational mindset plays out in the next decade or so, we are looking at a very different labour force model.
Instead of the vast majority of people just working for someone else, companies may need to cluster teams of free-standing entrepreneurs to do projects and tasks.
To work, this may well mean vast numbers of workers in the future needing Hollywood-style agents to be looking for their next contract and project while they get on with delivering the current gig.
There are upsides and downsides to this trend.
The corporation model, and the industrial structures that underpin it, in recent decades have struggled to cope with the speed of change brought on largely by technology.
As a result, countless millions have been expended on redundancies and this has resulted in valuable skilled labour being under-utilised as redundant workers are effectively paid compensation for not working.
An economy with a ready supply of skilled, self-employed entrepreneurs supported by “agents” would certainly provide the agility to quickly move skills to clusters of need.
The obvious downside is the reliability of the work and whether the entrepreneur worker model can adequately support an economy based on households as the core economic unit.
Many young people currently have the luxury of trying a business or a side hustle but are able to slink back to their old room at Baby Boomer Headquarters (the parental home) if things go awry.
As they get older the reality of mortgages and school fees might temper the ambition.
The extent of the change is hard to tell. But, to quote the shampoo commercial – it won’t happen overnight, but it (probably) will happen. TBD***.
Shane Rodgers is the author Worknado – Reimagining the way you work to live.
*SMH – Shaking my head
ROFL** – Rolling on the floor laughing
TBD*** – To be determined
