Slashing, or when work becomes plural

Just imagine. You are 18 years old, with your diploma fresh in your pocket. The question you’ve been asked since first grade comes up again. What will you do later? You are allowed a maximum of 10 choices. You end up being accepted everywhere and that’s how you become a “slasher”.

No, this is not the title of a new profession but just another name to describe a recent phenomenon in the labour market. Don’t like Anglicisms? Too bad for you, the term “slasher” comes from the English word “slash”, which designates the slash used to join words together and give the whole a simultaneous character, for example, when you want to list two jobs that you do simultaneously.

For the history lesson, it was first introduced in 2007 by the American Marci Alboher in her book One Person, Multiple Careers. You may never have heard of it, but it is well documented in the Larousse, which defines it as “a person, usually from generation Y, who has several jobs and/or activities at the same time”.

Although few statistics exist on the subject, a study conducted by the Salon des micro-entreprises in 2015 already counted 4.5 million French people as “slashers”, i.e. 16% of the working population. Since then, with the hybridization of work and the changing expectations of workers, the trend to combine several jobs to fulfill one’s professional life is definitely underway.

These new expectations are especially claimed by Generation Z, who are 44% to declare that they “do not know if they want to do the same job all their life” (Moodwork, 2021). Moreover, according to an OECD study, the under-30s are expected to have an average of 13 jobs in their lifetime, most of which do not yet exist. It is therefore crucial for employees to learn to become more agile in order to prepare for the future of skills.

You might object that slashing is not for you. When you made your Parcoursup (or other orientation platform/moment) choices, you didn’t reach the limit of 10 choices. But don’t speak too soon, you may not have found the slash jobs of your dreams yet: 85% of the jobs of 2030 don’t exist yet.

Thus, “slashing” between several jobs could become the norm. However, this presents some challenges: time management, agility, prioritisation and job security.

Developing your soft skills is essential to respond with resilience to the changing world of work. So, here is our selection of 3 courses to learn how to work in the plural.

– Coorpcast, Episode 13 “Slashing: multiple jobs, multiple lives” edited by Coorpacademy

Our audio learning episode on the subject !

– Manage your time better  co-published with Dunod Formation

Managing your time is essential to being truly effective at work. If you don’t manage your own organisation well, it can have repercussions for your colleagues and the teams you work with. And if you decide to “slash”, it will be essential to know how to juggle different jobs and organise your time according to your priorities!

This course will give you tips and keys to making the most of your time at work.

– Test your adaptability published by Coorpacademy

By definition, the future of work is constantly changing. In order to adapt, you’ll need to adopt best practices to become agile as a cat and land on your feet smoothly. Test your adaptability with this 9-step quiz, based on the three courses in our “Adaptability” course playlist.