I know it sounds like boomer advice, but I think they don’t actually expect us to take it. All my life I was told it’s just easier to work for someone else, because they take on all the costs and risks.
Well, I’ll tell ya what. I’m a personal trainer. Every gym I applied for wanted me to work for free. Most wanted me to pay “rent” back to the gym. They told me, “you have to earn your customers.” Give out free sessions to new members, a small percentage will become clients. Run free classes every week, a small percentage will become clients. And then pay the gym for the privilege of using their space.
Gyms are perfectly happy to market personal training services as a sell point. Free classes in the membership. Free PT session upon sign-up. What would I get? Nothing.
So I said, “stuff it.” Bought my own equipment and set up my own business. I’m not even talking 1000s of dollars, because I got creative with my purchases. I’m charging clients less than half what a gym PT charges, because I can afford to. Because I’m not burning my time on free labour and lining someone else’s pockets. I don’t have to inflate my prices to break even.
No boss, no uniforms, no being screwed out of my time.
The benefit is my clients don’t have to fork out so much money, and I get paid more for doing less. The biggest thing driving up prices is corporate greed. Cut out the fat man at the top, and it’s actually pretty easy to keep prices low.
If as many of us as possible start doing this, I reckon it’ll only be a matter of time before employers realise we don’t give a damn about their profit margin, and either back down, or start treating workers better. Because otherwise they’ll have no workers left.