Is it just me? or does everyone have a side hustle nowadays? asks SAMANTHA BRICK

Is it just me? or does everyone have a side hustle nowadays? asks SAMANTHA BRICK

  • An increasing number of women have a business, as well as their full-time job 
  • Samantha Brick argues hustle is about self-worth and keeping up appearances
  • Admits she takes pride in saying that she doesn’t do anything on the side  

What is it about friends who flog you stuff you neither want nor will ever use?

It’s not that I’m being unsisterly — well maybe a little — but often as not, it’s not a girlfriend’s main source of income. Oh no. This is their side hustle.

We Brits may work on average 35 hours a week, but, for reasons I can’t fathom, an increasing number of women have a business on the side, that they run as well as holding down a full-time job.

They crow about juggling it with managing the home and raising the children. It seems exhausting and Type- A competitive to boot.

Samantha Brick argues the increase in people who have a business on the side is mostly about self-worth and keeping up appearances (file image)

I’ve been bamboozled with emails flogging everything from homemade candles and overpriced essential oils to self- help courses.

Nothing, it seems, is off limits when it comes to plundering your social circle to earn extra cash. Am I being mean in noting that those who insist on doing this don’t need the dosh?

The hustle is more about the self-worth and keeping up appearances.

What these women don’t realise is that most of us run a mile to avoid them. It’s effectively a friendship destroyer.

During lockdown, I avoided being tapped up at the school gate or in the cafe. But that didn’t stop them infiltrating every social media outlet.

Asked what I do ‘on the side’, I take pride in saying absolutely nothing! 

I’m dreading autumn, when the inevitable round-robin emails will appear, pushing over-priced home-made chocolates and rubbish jewellery as gifts for Christmas.

There’s a lot to be said for working to live and not the other way around.

It’s why I take great pride in saying, when asked what I do ‘on the side’, that I do absolutely nothing.

Advertisement