Letters | Will the coronavirus bring full-time ‘slashie’ culture to Hong Kong?

Name: Hong Kong’s class of 2020 fears becoming ‘lost’ generation as Covid-19 shakes the global economy
Uploaded: 2020-10-10T22:45:16.000Z
Duration: 3 min 20 s
Description: Hong Kong’s class of 2020 fears becoming ‘lost’ generation as Covid-19 shakes the global economy

While working from home is the most talked about pandemic office trend, in the last few months, subsets of the Hong Kong workforce are embracing ‘side hustles’ and looking at becoming full-time slashies

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People cross a street in Hong Kong’s Central district business hub. The pandemic has not only forced many to work from home, but also increased interest in freelancing and pursuing multiple projects at the same time. Photo: Winson Wong

Letters

Published: 6:45am, 11 Oct 2020Updated: 6:45am, 11 Oct 2020

The recent “work from home” norm has forced Hongkongers to change their traditional mindset on work, finance and work-life balance. While this has been well documented, the rise of the “slashie” has been equally prominent and is becoming a key culture within the Hong Kong employment sector. A slashie is someone who undertakes multiple jobs, projects or roles instead of choosing one, fixed career path. I myself am a slashie; I just didn’t know it until recently.

Western economies, most of which have robust and dynamic self-employment frameworks, have long had slashies. Start-up culture has only accelerated this trend, as individuals contemplate getting their hands into as many pots as possible.

Historically, financial reasons were the key motivation for having more than one job. With Covid-19, there has been a dramatic shift in this mindset, where people not only want the financial benefits of a portfolio career but also desire the omnific and imaginative benefit of having multiple roles.

In Hong Kong, in the last few months, subsets of the workforce have been embracing these “side hustles” and looking at becoming full-time slashies.

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Hong Kong’s class of 2020 fears becoming ‘lost’ generation as Covid-19 shakes the global economy

Companies like Upwork and Freelancer.com have seen a dramatic increase in their user base since May. More significantly, there are more profiles registered as multi-hyphenate than ever before: such as “engineer/blogger/chef/graphic designer and dog walker”.

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | Will the coronavirus bring full-time ‘slashie’ culture to Hong Kong?

Letters | Will the coronavirus bring full-time ‘slashie’ culture to Hong Kong?