How an Internal Side Hustle Might Give You New Energy At Work

Typically, a side hustle is an enterprise which employees run in their free time, often in a field unrelated to their profession. Some examples of side hustlers are an accountant who caters parties for friends on the side, a school teacher who works as a photographer on the weekends or a marketing director who teaches yoga classes in her neighborhood. Many use a side hustle like a hobby – as a stress reliever and for personal enjoyment with the added perk that it creates extra income to hopefully "pay for itself."

I think an under-explored version of side hustle is the internal side hustle – when an employee steps outside of their department or role and works in other areas of the company – for enjoyment's sake. This can take the form of serving on a task force or working on a special project, but that's not quite the same. In those task force and project roles, the employee is often charged with representing their department or role. Of course, this work is very important and does provide added enjoyment and internal networking for many professionals.

What I'm thinking of is a bit different. It's the idea of creating something – like a project or a product or a process – that is outside of the employee's realm of responsibility but that the employee enjoys creating – in free, off-the-clock time. Some examples of internal side hustles are a retail employee improving a headquarters process, a store cashier designing a warehouse solution, an HR specialist improving the company's product and an accounting clerk designing a new training app.

Sometimes employees will get formal training or certificates or degrees in an area of personal interest. I've taught MBA students who worked in engineering, medicine, nursing and education. It's been a thrill to watch those students come up with internal side hustles as they learn business concepts and have "Eureka!" moments about how they can help their organization.

Sometimes these same students contact me later to share that those ideas did come to fruition – those "Eureka!" moments actually led to an improved process in an area outside of their formal role.

What's your "Eureka!" moment? What internal side hustles might you pursue at work?

Rebecca Schmeller, Ph.D., is an associate professor of management at Ashland University and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in strategic planning and policy, organizational development and organizational behavior in the College of Business and Economics.