Way back in 2005, when I moved to Canada, Canadians were well known for enjoying their after office life and had perfect office-personal life balance.
Canadians had perfect work-life balance – well that was what when I landed in Canada-Working with my first boss, Ms Kelly at Downtown Calgary, a wonderful colleague, was an enlightening experience. Never late to office while coming and never even late to leave office. Though our salaries at that time were not too great, but she found time and reason to enjoy every moment of it.
I remember, how she tried to understand India from me and noted down each and every place she should travel to in India. She was particularly obsessed with beauty of Tajmahal and I helped her make her travel to India.
How have Canadians now veered to moon lighting-Not any more!. Landscape at offices have changed in Canada. Though I could never realize how this happened, but probably the year 2011 was game changer when many of the workers were fired across Canada from their Jobs.
Today, another colleague of mine, a perfect Canadian otherwise, works 12 hour per week extra valeting vehicles in nearby hotel, which gets him about $350 extra per week. Some days when he gets generous tips, are even better.
How this paradigm shift in the mindset of Canadians happened? Why Canadians are now forced to look for moonlighting jobs?
Is it inflation or ambition? Has inflation made the living in Canada tougher or the Canadians have grown too ambitious to be able to manage in one job? Or may be mix of all these?
I have been very frugal in spending and rarely party out, may be my Indian habits would take some time to go. Despite this I find it difficult to allocate money for debt repayment of Car and House, RESP and RRSP contributions. I may share, house is very modest one and I have even subject the basement to a new immigrant which fetches me decent money
I wanted to improve my educational credentials by doing some supplementary courses, but the stiff fees had always made me defer my plans
When I recently met Kelly at downtown office again, she was a changed person. She was forthright to admit that now you would see more Canadians moonlighting to supplement their income. “The threat of losing job any moment and retiring at age anytime you are about 50, has forced people to think about saving money for the retirement plans, I will not like to move to a smaller apartment post retirement the way my Mom did when they retired”, she added.
I can see this is only way to pay your debts gracefully and without resorting to any payday loans which in any case are very expensive
As a recent study suggested that the persons working at multiple jobs has more than doubled and this trend is prevalent among professionals across all sectors whether real estate agent, accountants or teachers. People don’t seem to have any inhibitions about their second job even if that means driving taxi or taking call for nearby Pizza store for delivery.
Its effect on First Job– Till recently, I could see people were not hesitant to share their second job and now the feeling is growing among employers that people working at second job may not be doing justice to their main job.
On the other hand, some employers who are not liberal with annual raises have been known to assist people get second jobs
Moonlighting is definitely helping Canadians earn some extra buck to help maintain a great lifestyle.
As for me, the life is too short. I have got a chance to live in one of the world’s most beautiful country and I am moonlighting to travel to Manitoba which has one of the world’s most beautiful lakes and picturesque places.