Marketing Madness

THE LATE SHIFT TEAM

There's a lot of low-brow, manual jobs out there if there's a need to earn some extra cash. However, a lot of them are requiring messy, unsociable hours for very low income. Somebody has to do it, but I earned more money per hour on my paper round at 14 years old than these adults do per hour 23 years later on.

Since the summer, I've looked at multiple ways to earn some cash to keep me from getting into debt. It seems there's no shortage of work, but the type of work that everyone is expected to do, is often poorly briefed/managed with little concern for safety and personal wellbeing, plus it's physically demanding. 

I took on a role last night starting at 7.30 for 4hrs, on a role I expected to be really easy...stocking merchandise in a department store. I'm familiar with marketing roles from my time working at a marketing agency 10 years ago, so I already had some expectations going into this job. Evidently, as I discovered, quite a few things have changed in the time since I last worked in this field...

Management

The person organising and briefing us was late. She was also exhausted. In the 30 minutes while we waited, the rest of the crew filled us in on the shenanigans from the previous night's work. Unorganised, with no information about what was required and no food or refreshments given for 12-15 hour shifts, it was a wonder why these people were coming back.

Online (Dis-)Connection

There appeared to be very little interaction with any of the staff working from the many cheap labour online agencies prior to the event. So, everyone had expectations, but nobody seemed to know what was required of them until they actually arrived at the venue. There was a huge disconnect with the agencies booking the staff on to these jobs. And this was clearly a problem for everyone who'd been hired from their various (online) employers. None of them had spoken before - let alone met any of the agency staff that employed and managed our bookings. 

Low Income Expectations

I was not expecting there to be anyone older than myself at this job. I also thought to see more uneducated and a high percentage of non-nationals. This is where the biggest surprise came. There were a couple of older white middle class women and post grad students, making for a split closer to 70-30 against all the stereotypes I had for those who are willing to take on hard, long, unsociable hours doing low-paid/low-brow work. 

It appears that more people are either intent on leaving the office & abandoning corporate life like myself, or more likely just financially desperate and having to take on additional jobs to pay their escalating bills.