Assess culture of employer before revealing side hustle
Dear J.T. & Dale: I just got my real estate license, and I want to start building up my reputation as an agent. However, a friend of mine told me that if I put it on my LinkedIn profile, my current employer might realize that I have a new profession, and I could lose my job. That seems crazy to me. Is she right? — Dachelle
J.T.: Honestly, it depends on the employer. Some employers feel so threatened and are so worried about employees leaving them that they do check LinkedIn profiles to see if employees are potentially looking for a new job. So, seeing you had a real estate license could raise red flags. But that’s only if they are that kind of company. Many other companies are perfectly fine with you having a side hustle. I think you just have to assess the culture of your current organization and act accordingly.
DALE: Your question reminds me of an old joke from the last real estate boom. A state trooper stops a woman on the freeway for speeding and says to her, “I need to see your real estate license.” She says, “Don’t you mean my driver’s license?” The trooper replies, “Not everyone has one of those.” The point is that holding a real estate license is not uncommon — a lot of people get a license in order to buy and sell their own properties. So it shouldn’t set off alarms at work — unless you are caught doing deals on company time. So you might mention the real estate license to your management in the context of personal use and gauge the reaction. There’s even a chance, if all goes surprising well, you might be able to be open about your efforts and start to help fellow employees with their housing.
Best of career resources
DALE: We like to pass along the best of career resources, and for this time, we have something different: our thoughts on the writings of Kelly Evans of CNBC. To my mind, she is doing the most interesting work on that network.
J.T.: The article that got us talking was her reaction to the latest number of open jobs in the U.S. — a record 9.3 million in April. She says, “... the data are confirming something really, really different is going on out there.” And here are her thoughts on what is so different: “So as I think it over, the pandemic seems to have sharply sped up the societal change that was gradually happening — the Great American Reset. What change? Well, we all know the quality of internet video and video conferencing had been gradually increasing over the years. But suddenly, the pandemic showed that it could replace previous systems for how we live, and school, and work. No one wants to waste away all day in a corporate office.”
DALE: No one? No one? I’ve been assuming that some hybrid home-andoffice solution will emerge, but listen to what Evans goes on to argue: “So you’re seeing this massive reshuffling now, as people who can have flexibility restructure — and
improve — their lifestyles around it. For some, that means cashing in their homes, moving to lowercost areas and retiring early . ... For younger couples, that might mean one spouse can now permanently work from home — or even drop out of the labor force altogether, if it’s paired with moving somewhere cheaper.”
J.T. And here’s her conclusion: “But bottom line, workers for a whole variety of reasons are saying to their old employers “pay up, or I’ll find something different to do.” The quits rate also hit a new high in April and is 40% above its prepandemic average. YOLO, baby! (That’s “You Only Live Once.”) This certainly fits with what I’m hearing from my clients.
DALE: This could already mean yet a newer New Economy. Can’t wait. (You can follow Kelly Evans’s thoughts on the economy by going to CNBC.com and scrolling down to the link to sign up for newsletters — hers is “The Exchange.”)
Jeanine “J.T.” Tanner O’Donnell is a career coach and the founder of the leading career site www.workitdaily.com. Dale Dauten is founder of The Innovators’ Lab and author of a novel about H.R., “The Weary Optimist.” Please visit them at jtanddale.com, where you can send questions via email, or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803. (c) 2021 by King Features Syndicate Inc.