Back in 1990s when I was new to the workforce, my friends and I frequently went straight to a happy hour on Fridays after work to round out our work week.
At the Happy Hour, we were guaranteed to be around other young people, get some free food and for a nominal fee, have some drinks.
Stories were told, laughs were shared, and we all blew off some steam from the work week. In 2022, many young adults are not in the office on Friday. During the week, they spend more time looking at screens than at people. Data is showing that it results in loneliness and unhealthy stress.
Researchers like Susan Pinker told us long before the pandemic that "if we don't interact regularly with people face-to-face, the odds are we won't live as long, remember information as well, or be as happy as we could have been."
Absent a happy hour or enough of an in-person work environment, I am seeing young adults filling their ache for human interaction with a side gig in the service sector.
At least that's how I am interpreting what's going on.
See what you think.
Restaurant Worker
Recently, I met James who is controller for a Not-for-Profit. When I asked him what he did for fun, he told me he worked at a couple of restaurants during the weekends. This surprised me. He went on to explain that he didn't really work for the pay (but admitted the extra income was nice). He said he worked for "the benefits" that came with it.
I asked what the benefits were, and he explained he received discounted and sometimes free food and drinks. Plus "it was a fun environment to be in." He really enjoyed his co-workers and the customers, and he looked forward to the time he spent with them each week.
I had been hearing about some young adults who work in corporate environments where they spend a significant portion of their time engaging with screens, supplementing their "day job" with part-time job in the service sector.
I reached out to a few of them to learn more.
Bar Back
Matt has been working Thursdays for almost a year as a bar back at a pub in his neighborhood. He likes that it's "a switch up of scene" from his day job where he's an analyst for a financial institution.
He likes the customers, the regulars and everyone that comes in. He explained they are "well mannered" and that there's never been a customer problem not easily solved by he or the bartender.
"I am on my feet more and interacting with people. I love being there when there's a good sports game on. It entertains people. I can be working with it the background, but also experiencing it."
He doesn't even consider it work. He gives people drinks. He says it's easy, and when it's busy, time goes by fast.
"I'm walking around giving people drinks, cleaning up versus just sitting at my desk punching numbers and doing the same thing."
Plus, he has coworkers that are fun to work with. During football season, he has been asked to work on Saturdays and Sundays.
"I don't mind working, knowing there's a game on. You can watch as you work and talk with the customers about the game. It makes it more of you just hanging out versus working."
When he was in college, he worked on an entertainment boat full time in the summers. While he really did like aspects of that job and of his bar back job, he knows for him, a shift or two a week is enjoyable, whereas five, six days a week would not be.
Yoga Studio Cleaner
Donna wanted to find a community when she moved to Chicago for her new software sales job. She loved going to yoga, but her local studio was expensive.
One time she saw a young woman at the studio wiping the yoga mats. Donna asked her "what do you do?" The young woman explained that she worked one and a half hours a week cleaning the yoga mats, windows and floors. In exchange, she was paid an hourly wage and received a highly discounted yoga rate.
The young woman said "It's awesome. I use the cleaning time to listen to music or a podcast, and I can get us much yoga as I want." For Donna, "it was a no brainer." She signed up and did it for two years.
The cleaning and the yoga became regular commitments that took Donna out of her normal routine. Going to the studio became "her thing." While she would not say she found her community at the studio, she did look forward to the yoga with the familiar faces and her weekly time allotted to clean the yoga mats and listen to podcasts.
She said "I leave my apartment with a quick I'll see you later. I'm off to the studio."
Bar Trivia Host
During the pandemic, like many people, Megan had no commitments any night of the week. She had gotten use to not having any obligations in the evenings.
She and her friends started going to a bar trivia night in her neighborhood. One time, the host announced they were looking for hosts to run the trivia night in other venues. Megan loves trivia. Jeopardy is one of her favorite games.
She inquired and was offered a location in a different neighborhood than her own. It sounded interesting to her because of the wide ranges of ages of patrons that showed up. Plus, she thought she could hone her public speaking skills, which is a part of her regular job as a production manager for an education and event planning association.
She committed to work every Wednesday night. At first, she felt a bit of trepidation around giving up one of her no schedule evenings.
"Structure is a good thing. Accepting this reminded me of that and got me back into that routine of having a commitment. I always want to go, and if another thing comes up that's fun on the same night, I remind myself that is a true commitment I need to keep."
Megan goes into the office three days a week. She says her social battery gets charged when she goes into the office. On Wednesdays, when she gets home from the office, she needs to head right back out trivia night which make the day longer than she was used to. Yet, she likes it.
"It's really fun. The regulars know me. Plus, I get paid. I think of it as my manicure fund."
Fitness Gym Greeter
When Molly moved to Austin and started her new job as an on premise sales representative for beverage company, she was missing having activities outside of work. She was looking for a way to make friends. She also wanted a different way to exercise her brain, even if it was through menial tasks.
She took a job at fitness gym three morning a week as the person at the front desk. She was a greeter. Her shift started at 4:30 a.m. and ended at 9:00 a.m.
She opened the gym, turned on the lights and monitors. Around 5:00 the first members came in for class. She checked them in. When someone inquired about joining the gym, she offered them a free class and followed up with them to explain the membership options. She had a sales quota.
She made friends with the other people that worked there. There were a lot of other part time workers. Plus, the members were friendly too. The job also came with a free membership.
"I was wanting to be better about working out, I felt like I wasn't being active enough, which is why I wanted to do something like this."
Molly ended up working out three or four times a week. She could go into the class during their shift.
"I was being paid to work out."
Leaders,
These young adults have found a way to get more human interaction into their week by adding a service sector side gig.
When they get the friendly smile from a someone familiar, or a knowing look of support that can only be delivered in person, it boosts their immunities (their brain secrets oxytocin and vasopressin into their bloodstream).
As result, they are happier.
Reach out to me if you would like to design more human interaction back into your workplace, especially if you have any of these challenges:
• Less engaged employees
• Poor performance at work
• Customer relationship instability
• Higher health care costs
• Increased sick days, medical leaves of absence
• Increased turnover and cost to hire
I have some concrete ideas to share with you, some of which you can find in my book, Disconnected https://www.amazon.com/dp/1641374829 published by New Degree Press.
Key Points