No More "9 to 6" Entrepreneurship Among Millennials This revolution is going to change the "9 to 6" monotony
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Tamasha, a movie created by Imtiaz Ali, a prolific film director from the Hindi Film Industry, resonated with many of us. It introduced us to the protagonist as a creative storyteller who eventually gets stuck in the drudgery of "9 to 6", an immutable office concept we are all conditioned to follow. To see the contrast between what he could be and what he had become stirred something dormant within each one of us.
You wait for a guy to approach you. Be bashful when someone compliments you. Where you grew up defines you. Emotions spell weakness. "9 to 6" jobs are all about productivity. These are a set of unwritten, tacit rules that we have been following, no questions asked. No one knows their origin and no one questions their relevance in contemporary times.
The Truth is
Being human is to evolve and change as times change and conventions can't find the context anymore. Change is tough, and being different or trying something new takes unwavering courage. And most importantly, it threatens our status quo, which at most times is nothing but our comfort zone. It's this space of comfort that gave birth to ridiculous stereotypes and societal norms.
If "9 to 6" is Man-Made, Can't Man Unmake it?
How freeing would it be to not shave every day? However little is being said about where "9 to 6" came from. Contrary to the popular belief, "9 to 6" was an invention of nineteenth-century socialism. The real inventors of the 8-hour workday were the American labour unions of the 1800s. Back then, there was no limit to the hours that employers could demand of the employees, and factory workers could look at something as brutal as 100 hours a week. With the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, the official work week became 40 hours a week and ever since the same has been followed across the world.
In the meanwhile, technology has swept the world with its brilliance and one is not mandated to work from office anymore. Thanks to smartphones, laptops and widely available internet, almost the whole world is your office and one can virtually work from anywhere. It's no longer necessary to be in the office at all times in order to be productive. The first ones to ride this wave are millennials. For them, it's not the freedom from the desks, but from the inflexibility of "9 to 6". One recent survey stated that 66per cent of millennials had goals to start their own business. This can be owed to a collective desire for financial independence and a flexible work-life balance. However, the statistics might point at millennials failing to become entrepreneurs, but there's no denying the fact that their attitude alone is definitely transforming the industries. The rate at which the millennials are starting their own businesses is way more than their predecessors. This is indicative of the fact that they might be failing but they are certainly not afraid to do so and continue on their path to self-employment.
