Are You For Or Against The New Big Trend Of Career Hoarding?

Career hoarding is an obvious fallout of the hybrid work and silent quitting, as today’s worker multi-tasks and hold multiple jobs. It works as a safety net for employees, but it may also signal an early burnout. 

Career Hoarders do not feel moral qualms about holding multiple jobs anymore.

Career Hoarding is a term that may jump you very soon if it hasn’t already because, with silent quitting and work-from-home becoming common across businesses, employees are no more prepared to put all their eggs in one basket.

They are instead holding multiple jobs (not moonlighting) and sometimes even from different related fields.

Tessa West writes that a huge 69% of employees who are working fully remotely now hold one more job – besides their main job. 13 million Americans have at least 2 jobs, already, and the trend may definitely not be limited to the US, where it is, in any case growing exponentially.

Interestingly, the Career Hoarders’ reasons for multi-tasking are to do with ‘choice’ rather than a ‘forced option’. It may have more to do with the new millennial need to retire fast, and the fact that the contemporary worker does not carry the baggage of ‘lifelong loyalty’. Yet, this phenomenon is now not just limited to the young, but even touches older people nearing retirement.

While companies in the West are encouraging it (surprise) for the free learning and experience it brings their employee – a quick look at recent news reports will show that in India there is still strong resistance to it, as it is seen as a sign of ‘disloyalty’.

But while ‘career hoarding’, may seem attractive, it can come at a rather heavy cost – resulting in burnout and inability to manage work with ‘cognitive overload’.

Tessa West draws a relationship between ‘career hoarding and another phenomenon related to eroding identities: ‘ghosting’, and quotes a survey of 900 employers, where 83% had been ghosted by a new hire.

The judgement, however, on whether Career Hoarding could prove to be a menace or simply something the young worker will adjust to along with employers – is still open.

HUMAN FACTOR’S POINT OF VIEW
It may be too simplistic to take an amoral stand on ‘career hoarding’, the key perhaps lies in a shared morality between Employer and Employee. If the employer invests significantly in the employee – not just moneys, but in the employer-employee bond, then to expect reciprocation is not much to ask for. However, if it is not a two-way street, one is forced to reconcile with ‘career hoarding’ as a smart way that works for all.

For traditional companies, a little investment in sound HR-tech solutions and a vigilant empathetic HR would make ‘career-hoarding’ redundant for the employee. Businesses simply would then have to implement a ‘continuous performance management system’ coupled with ‘sentiment tracking’ to keep track of any gaps or fall in performance or in employee sentiment (If it is AI-based, it can even provide Earning Warning to the HR). A good LMS integrated will ensure that employee’s learning needs are taken care of at the first sign of such a need. 

Read full story on FORTUNE.com in the article “Career hoarding is on the rise—but it comes at a cost” by TESSA WEST