Can side projects make workplaces more authentic?
Out of Hours was set up to help more people start and progress side projects. The name Out of Hours has two meanings, the literal one — where we work on our passions out of working hours, and the other one: the reminder that every day we are running out of hours. Our time is limited and we must be intentional with how we spend it: stop being afraid, make time for the things we love and work on the ideas we keep talking about.
I’ve been spending a lot of the last year tumbling into a strange obsession with the power of side projects. Not just looking at the growing number of people creating an income from their passions - the so-called ‘passion economy’ but also the developing research that shows that having a side project can actually makes employees more engaged at work. At the core of all of this, is one central interest of mine: the power of side projects to unlock authenticity in how we work.
Why side projects matter alongside work
Whilst having a side project is not an essential part of modern life — and there are a vast number of happy and successful people who do not have one — I believe side projects are a great way not only to “monetize unique skills”, but also to find more joy in our lives. Whilst hobbies tend to be more private, and side hustles more geared towards income generation, side projects allow us to take our own playful ideas more seriously, develop our curiosity and do meaningful work.
Perhaps what we are realising is that however much we may love our job, it is unlikely to satisfy every part of who we are. Jobs exist to provide value to companies, and whilst we may get tremendous pleasure from the tasks involved, and the team may feel like family, and the mission may feel like our own — rarely can every single part of who we are fit into one job description. Thiago, a children’s illustrator who used to be an Executive Creator Director for a large advertising agency, said something similar, when I interviewed him for Out of Hours:
“You have to find a job where you don’t feel like you’re doing them a favour, and they don’t feel like they’re doing you a favour by employing you. But even if you get there you’re never going to be able to fulfil all your personal ambitions and desires in any job that has been created by somebody else for a slightly generic person. You can’t be reduced to that. And if you work for an industry that asks for 10–12 hours a day, and a lot of what you do is not driven by you, it becomes more frustrating. After all, if you were irreplaceable, the place wouldn’t work. They have to rely on the machine.”
A job by its nature must have some level of commoditisation, and if we define our messy and complex selves by a commodity you can imagine how this might lead to feelings of inauthenticity. Jean Paul Sartre talks about this authenticity by identifying what he calls ‘bad faith’. Acting in ‘bad faith’ is when people act “under pressure from social forces, adopt false values and disown their innate freedom, hence acting inauthentically”*. When we act in bad faith, Sartre argues, we deny the true freedom we have in life. The fact is, he says, we are never stuck — quite the opposite — we are “condemned to be free”.
Bad faith and inauthenticity at work
Sartre talks about a waiter — who’s so bought into the identity of a waiter that he is almost ham-acting. Sartre writes, “his movement is quick and forward, a little too precise, a little too rapid”. The waiter is not authentically himself as a waiter, he is acting as a waiter. This ham-acting in our own lives can stop us being fulfilled. One way to stop this is through integrating our personality and family lives in our work, forcing an acknowledgement of us as whole people. Another way is to cultivate our own interests as projects.
I’ve seen this authenticity be unlocked first hand, during professional situations, when I’ve asked people in very serious careers if they themselves have a passion project. I’ve asked everyone from senior board members of public companies, recruiters and academics — and each time I’ve asked, I’ve seen a strange thing happen: talking about side projects unlocks a more authentic conversation almost immediately.
Talking about passions in professional settings
At a networking dinner before the pandemic I asked a senior exec with a fancy title whether he had any passion projects. The conversation shifted immediately to climate change, the Hoffman process and personal relationships. I know from experience now that this type of question can disarm people. It forces us to take off our armour — the brand names of the company we work for and the ham acting of Sartre’s waiter — and be really vulnerable. Our voice drops an octave and a few decibels and we switch off autopilot.
It was the same with recruiters. When I left my previous job, I took some interviews with recruiters. I began the script of running through what I had been working on, and as I mentioned Out of Hours and side projects I noticed the conversation switch gears. One recruiter told me that he and his girlfriend had been planning a project, another hiring manager told me he’d had this idea for a new way to drink gin. Another one actually attended one of the events. We were no longer mutually pitching but rather discussing things that mattered to us. Side projects give people permission to be their authentic selves.
And here’s the other crazy thing.
Being authentic is not a threat to our companies’ success. By being authentic we don’t become anti-corporate, job hating menaces. We don’t all quit our jobs, skive off or resent our managers. In fact, quite the opposite.
Side projects build better companies
See, if we do deep down have multiple passions and ideas, then this inauthentic ‘bad faith’ that we might cultivate at monolithic companies — is really just an excuse to be submissive. Sartre says it is a way of pretending that we have less freedom within our lives than we really do: a choice of “appropriation” rather than “autonomy”. Perhaps this is partly the reason why redundancy not only shocks our financial security but also our sense of self: a fear of having to confront who we are outside of the job, a secondary, emotional blow that causes unnecessary pain - all because we have decided we have one self, not what Adam Grant calls a “portfolio of selves”.
We can and should invite moments of authenticity into our work lives. Instead of multifaceted personal identities threatening our commitment to the corporate agenda, our many passions and identities can sit alongside this agenda, and actually end up bolstering it and building a better company. As Bo Ren recently wrote on Twitter, following Bozoma Saint John’s appointment as CMO of Netflix:
“Progressive corporations see that individual voice and brand amplify the corporate brand. The old school way of thinking is that the employee needs to subsume their brand with the corporate brand”.
This is true, and it’s not just individual brands - it’s also projects. Consider Sarah Nöckel’s project Femstreet — featuring must-read content by female founders, operators and investors. Not only may this have played a role in the shape of her own career but the newsletter, and the domain expertise she has built, will have undoubtedly have boosted the brand equity of the funds she has worked for. Having your own project is not a threat, it is an asset.
Bozoma replied to Bo Ren’s tweet about her new role with this:
“Thank you for that affirmation… because all I’m really trying to do is to be me. Dassit.”
And that’s all any of us should be trying to be. Instead of fitting our round selves into square holes, we should invite our full and whole selves to the table — knowing that this will lead us to the most fulfilling work of our lives.
But… heed this final warning.
Passion projects can contribute to corporate culture, but this does not mean the company should control them. It is a delicate balance: support your team’s projects but do not smother them or appropriate them. Modern companies will need to ruthlessly protect freedom of thought and creativity to retain great employees. It is also in everyone’s interest for as many people as possible to do work they love to do. So whether a project becomes a full time project or remains a side project — it doesn’t really matter. Working on our own projects is simply a way to increase the number of times we are all acting from a place of authenticity. After all, we are all running out of hours.
If you’re looking to help build your passion project, or your team’s projects - sign up at outofhours.org/apply or email me at hello@outofhours.org
*J. Childers/G. Hentzi eds., The Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism (1995) p. 103)