Oddball Rooms, Sham Perks & Sidey Side Jobs🪞

Why this matters?

A 2021 report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) revealed that 64% of LGBTQ people experience more bullying and algorithmic aggression than any other demographic online. That abuse is compounded when racism, sexism, and other biases co-occur. 40% of all LGBTQ+ adults report not feeling safe on social media.

Large media apps like TikTok have been frequently criticized for their failure to stop such harassment.

The value proposition of Spaces is about a non-judgement digital platform where queer people can be their full selves.

If anything, these perks act as an excuse for employers to burden workers with high-stress projects and extended hours. Rose Byrne’s character in The Internship was chronically overworked and under-slept. She was so over-reliant on the perks that she had literally no time for life outside the company. 

What do workers actually want?

• Location-agnostic pay, which lets them work from wherever they want without compromising on salary.
• Leave policies that don’t need them to pretend their grandma died for the 4th time just to justify the day-off.

Many Gen Z college graduates are flipping a corporate career in favor of entrepreneurship. 

We already know that Gen Z is super into hustle culture. Their side jobs also have side jobs and many employers are starting to make peace with that. 

But now the traditional idea of “hustle culture” is also evolving.

62% of Gen Z workers have started, or intend to start, their own business, according to data from the Center for Generational Kinetics. From Etsy stores to offering TikTok ads, some of them are running full-fledged businesses on the side.

A recent Microsoft survey sheds more light on this entrepreneurial spark. 

• Nearly half of Gen Z have numerous side hustles. 
• Entrepreneurs who use TikTok for their business (48%) are twice as likely to have multiple side hustles as those who do not.
• 81% of Gen Z entrepreneurs work on vacation, out of their own volition. 
• 86% of small business owners stated they would quit their 9-to-5 in favour of keeping their business.

Clearly Gen Z doesn’t seem to care about the stress and burnout that comes with too much hustling. Instead, many see it as a way to fast-track their retirement. About 61% believe they will be able to retire faster owning a small business than if they held a corporate job. 

Interestingly, since they start their entrepreneurial journey before college, many don’t even find a formal degree critical anymore. Instead, they prefer to ask TikTok for business advice.

Britain has been a major world economic power for over two centuries. But after the budget last week, the country is suddenly starting to look like an emerging market. 

• The budget included major tax cuts for high earners and scrapped a planned hike in corporate taxes. 
• It spelled out government plans to spend £150 billion on energy subsidize as the nation prepares for a hard winter. 

Ideally, lower taxes + more subsidies = ‘hoorah’ among the masses. Instead, the markets reacted to the budget like they don’t quite trust the British government to handle its financial situation. 

So what went wrong? 

• Investors started selling off government bonds quickly, pushing rates to record highs.
• The GBP fell over 3% against the USD - the lowest it’s been since 1985.

This combo of soaring bond rates and plunging currency is usually what countries without sound economies experience—not wealthy nations like the UK.