Monday, November 7, 2016

Ten things to do when your work is casual

I have several clients, family members and friends who currently work in casual work settings. This is not by their own choice, but due to the nature of the industries they work in.

This means that, despite them being great workers and good at what they do, and even though some of them have worked for their employers for a long time, they never know from week to week when they will be working, and for how many hours.

The work is seasonal, but also fluctuates on a week to week basis, so until the start of the week they don't know whether they will be required for one, ten, or sixty hours over the following five or six days.

This is bad enough if you are single, let alone if you are supporting a family, which some are doing. 

If you are working as a casual employee, like most who are doing this, you might be hoping that this is just a stop-gap, while you look for a job with a more permanent arrangement. Unfortunately, this is not an option for most, especially in regional areas, where it seems that the casualisation of the workforce is at its most intense. In any case, having worked in, and observed the recruitment industry over three decades, it is clear that we are on a trajectory to even greater workforce casualisation, so we had all better get used to the idea that for many of us, working life will involve juggling two or three jobs each week, or over a year, just to get the required hours and income.

The problems of casual work are ongoing topics of conversation.

In addition to making it harder to manage one's personal finances, being a casual employee makes it harder to get loans, and there is the constant fear of how to exist if the casual job dries up (which can happen quite suddenly), due to there being no more work, or if the person has an accident, develops an illness, or simply wants to take a holiday. Most of these are things that the waged employee has no concept of.

Don't despair. There are several steps you can take to limit the downside of this way of working. With a bit of luck, you will start to see the positives and embrace it.

1. You may want to stop reading at this point, but please don't. It is important. You need to set yourself up an entire and proper budget, so you know what your regular outgoings are, including your rent/mortgage payments, utilities, food and other bills. Write up all these amounts in a yearly format, as this makes it easier to see how much you need to earn and to account for fluctuations. If you can use computers well and calculations don't make you go into meltdown, you can probably do this yourself, using Excel or a specialised system. If not, hiring a service like My Budget will save you heaps of time and worry. I've had several clients who have done this and they have all given rave reports, even those who were skeptical at first.

Once you know what your yearly outlay is (including a percentage buffer - most financial planners recommend adding at least 15% to account for inflation and cost increases), you can break this number down to more manageable chunks - for example, if you are usually paid fortnightly, divide the total cost by 26, if weekly, divide by 52 etc.  (If you want to factor in a couple of weeks off, divide by 25 or 52 - it is a good idea to do this anyway).

Whatever else you do, take the time to get this step right, it is the floor, the bedrock, on which your casual working life will stand.

2. Next on your 'to do' list is to anticipate your earnings over the next year. If you have already been working on a casual basis, this means looking over your past year's income; if you are new to this type of work, you will need to do some thoughtful projecting. Ask your employer when the peak work periods are, whether there are forced down-times (for example, do they close down for the month of January?). Ask other people who work in your industry, or talk to recruiters. When you have finished your guesstimation, check this against your list of outgoings and see if there is a discrepancy. This will help you to work out if you need to make changes to your lifestyle, or perhaps find other work to support you. 

Knowing your financial situation is a precurser to anything else you do as a casual employee. (I presume you are doing it for the money it brings in, not simply for the love of the job. If it is the latter, I have a slightly different strategy for you.) If you are not getting paid enough, this work is only going to cause worry and anxiety, and you will resent the work you do and may fail to work to your own, or anyone else's, satisfaction, causing problems now and in the future.

3. Make sure you use two separate bank accounts. On the weeks when you earn more than your allocated budget, the excess goes into an account that you only touch during the 'dryer' weeks, when you are earning less (or nothing at all). Because you already have your fortnight's costs written down, you will be able to see at a glance how many fortnights you have in store. Pay as many bills as possible in advance, pay others as soon as you get them, or pay in instalments to help prevent the surges (you know, those times when all the bills come in at once.). Just remember that often you pay more when you pay in instalments, so only do this if it is totally necessary.

4. (Nearly finished with the boring stuff, I promise.) Cut up your credit cards. I'm serious. Casual work and a credit card is a bad marriage, and multiple cards will be your nemesis. if you must, keep ONE with a $500 credit limit, but don't use it, if you need that kind of security. You don't actually need it, as much as you think you might, and you certainly won't want it when you get your monthly statement. You can use your debit Visa or Master Card like a credit card, to pay online etc., with the advantage that it is only your money you are spending.

5. This takes us away from the finances into more interesting areas (for me, anyway, and hopefully for you as well). This is about making yourself employable as a casual. Everyone needs to maintain a good set of work skills and attributes, but for casuals this is even more important.

The first way to do this is to provide good value to your employer or employers: turn up when you are rostered, don't ask for changes to your roster unless these are essential, be on time, put in the effort and tidy up before you leave. In any job, the biggest gripe I hear from employers is that a person was late, or that they left a mess behind at the end of their shift. They remember these two things more than anything else, so if you get those right you are already on a winner. Oh, and try not to slack off while you are there, either.

6. Make yourself indispensable. This could mean that you always handle a particular task (preferably one that your boss doesn't like doing). This might be dealing with a difficult customer, if your boss prefers to stay in the background, or sorting out a storeroom to make it easier for everyone to find things. This way, when you are not on shift and something is not working, everyone will be saying 'We need (insert your name) here, to sort this out.

7. Make yourself as attractive as you can in the workforce generally. After all, you know, this job won't last forever. This might mean developing a specialisation. For instance, there might be a new piece of equipment that no one wants to learn how to use. You learn how to use it! You will become the expert in your workplace, and no doubt other employers in the field will be purchasing this piece of equipment, so you have a unique transferable skill to your credit. (Don't forget to add it to your resume).

8. Be flexible about the kind of work you do. Most jobs are relatively easy to pick up, and making yourself available for other tasks makes you more skilled and experienced, with more to offer in this increasingly competitive field. Make sure you get appropriate safety training!

While this seems to be almost saying the opposite to point 7, in which I suggested you specialise, I prefer to see them as a pair.

9. Always make sure in job search mode. Loyalty will only take you so far, and being a casual means you can never be sure you will be employed tomorrow. Scan your neighbourhood for other work, keep your ears and eyes open for other opportunities, and keep your resume up to date. This way you are prepared whenever the axe falls on your current job.

10. Consider becoming your own boss. Plenty of people transition from the casual workforce to becoming a sole operator. You can usually command a higher pay, and while you do need to organise your own tax and superannuation, there is little or no greater risk involved, as a casual. All you need is an ABN and an invoice template to begin. (I will talk more about this in another post). You might even find yourself working for your old boss, but with more klout (and money). 





No comments:

Post a Comment