With our and our team members’ schedules so full, it will sound very counterintuitive to suggest that giving them the space for a side job be a good idea but it is one of the best ways to bring a new level of motivation and of innovation to your team members.

People will grow and thrive and ultimately be more productive and useful to your team if they can get a balance of a stable job and the buzz and freshness of time dedicated to a side gig.

Think of all the great people you know who work very hard in their day job and then dedicate, either voluntarily or even paid time to create a side enterprise / blog / something outside their workplace.

Instead of being more tired, they are more energized, why? Three reasons:

1. At work you often have to deal with problems that others created for you and are constrained by the rules and culture of the company (however great it is). In a side gig you have the freedom to experiment, to try things out, it is not your main job, it is something extra.
2. Operating outside of your day-time working environment you get new insights. You will will work with people who are different than the usual people at work, you will be operating in an environment that is new and that will give you new insights, fresh new outlooks, an awareness of new trends that you can then bring back to the day-job.
3. The passion that is let free in your out-of-work gig, what YOU decided to do, what you are free to do, what really drives you deeply, will rub off and bring new joy, new passion in yourself that you will then apply also during “the day” in your stable job.

Are you allowing / encouraging your team to have a side gig?