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Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

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Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#11

Post by PragmaticPulp »

The obvious fallacy is that this is comparing a stable, successful, established business to a risky job. He’s also assuming it’s difficult to get a new job, but ignoring the difficulty of establishing a stable single-person business.

Successful, stable businesses with multiple diversified clients don’t come easy. It’s rare to have a single-person business with a product that scales to many customers. Once you scale it, you likely need to bring on employees, which means you now have significant financial obligations to make payroll every month. That’s hardly low-risk.

If you’re the type of person who can build a successful single-person business with multiple customers, it’s not exactly difficult to find a high paying job doing the same work for someone else.

You don’t start a business because it’s easier or less risky than a day job.

Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#12

Post by fanciestManimal »

badernator wrote: post #2

Many people view businesses as risky when in fact it is not entirely true. I wrote this quick piece to explain my thoughts on why 9-5 jobs aren’t diversified and are in fact riskier

Do you think you might be understating the probability of failing in business, and overstating the odds of getting laid off? It's not like many businesses haven't closed their doors during the COVID pandemic.

I also doubt the percentage of startups that fail in a given year would compare well against the number of people that get laid off in a given year.

And having 100 customers doesn't help if losing 10 means the business is no longer profitable.

Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#13

Post by bsder »

Maybe this is why people park themselves in Silicon Valley in spite of soaring rents and other issues?

When your employer lays you off there, you simply go get another one.

When this happens in, say, Pittsburgh, PA, your options aren't quite so numerous.

Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#14

Post by corty »

fanciestManimal wrote: post #7

"Since most full-time jobs involve a single employer — it’s a one single point of failure — meaning, you just need your employer to fire you to lose your income. With a business, you usually have more than one customer and in the majority of cases: tens, hundreds, thousands, and even millions of customers who are your revenue source" This claim is so overly superficial that it's not helpful. The percentage of busines…

It is also misleading because a lot of businesses, especially small ones, do have a single point of failure: Get banned by your payment provider or payments frozen for some reason and you are done. Get dragged into a lawsuit by a customer, done. Have your restaurant fail a health inspection, done (well, far too rarely, but happens).

And COVID-19 also shows that larger businesses can be more resilient to unforeseen catastrophes, although I would hope something COVID-19-like to be rare enough not to matter too much.

Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#15

Post by firecall »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #11

The obvious fallacy is that this is comparing a stable, successful, established business to a risky job. He’s also assuming it’s difficult to get a new job, but ignoring the difficulty of establishing a stable single-person business. Successful, stable businesses with multiple diversified clients don’t come easy. It’s rare to have a single-person business with a product that scales to many customers. Once you scale i…

>The obvious fallacy is that this is comparing a stable, successful business to a risky job.

Hmm... the point being made is that all jobs are inherently risky. There are factors beyond your control.

You can't work harder or smarter to keep a job when the world turns against you.

The economy, a new manager, changes in structures, business direction and so on can leave you high and dry. Your previously secure middle managers job can vanish over night.

It's happened to me and many people I know.

Further to this, there is no such thing as a career at a company. You don't have anything. A job title is temporary and once you are out, you are out and that's that.

You might never get a decent position in a company again. You just don't know... full-time work is risky!

Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#16

Post by agrajag »

badernator wrote: post #2

Many people view businesses as risky when in fact it is not entirely true. I wrote this quick piece to explain my thoughts on why 9-5 jobs aren’t diversified and are in fact riskier

Just because you work a 9-5 job doesn't mean that all of your risk is tied up in the fate of a single employer, subject to their whims.

For most people, if something happens to their current employer, they can go get another one! In this economy especially, with a decent skillset you can probably go get another job in 2-4 weeks.

The real risk is much closer to _how many employers exist that might hire you_. If there are only a couple of businesses that need people with your skillset then that's a problem. If your skillset has a wide demand though then it's fine to only collect your income from one source at a time. If one employer dries up go take your skills elsewhere.

Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#18

Post by jrumbut »

I've taken a couple not-entirely-unsuccessful cracks at running a small business and worked for others in the same vein and can tell you that, at least for a software business, the dirty secret is that a lot of businesses out there are totally dependent on 1-3 large clients.

Established businesses, on the other, hand often do have a diverse customer base and other means to overcome economic headwinds, and they can be seen as a mechanism that bundles those things for you and gives you a portion of that security.

Re: Why Full-Time 9 to 5 Jobs are Risky

#20

Post by perl4ever »

fanciestManimal wrote: post #7

"Since most full-time jobs involve a single employer — it’s a one single point of failure — meaning, you just need your employer to fire you to lose your income. With a business, you usually have more than one customer and in the majority of cases: tens, hundreds, thousands, and even millions of customers who are your revenue source" This claim is so overly superficial that it's not helpful. The percentage of busines…

I think there's an error in the analogy. Finding a new job is like finding a new customer, not like your business failing.
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