Small pay, Exploitation, Fame and The Gig economy
By: Isaac Mulindwa
Tags: Gigs, Employment, Uganda, Fame

I hope the lock downs and associated limitations are not affecting our lives as gravely as we imagined at the beginning of these episodes, being asked to stay at home in order to help save to world was never something I expected to ever happen in my life. While growing up mama always told us that laziness is recipe for poverty and that a real man better works for free than stay home seeing TV. This is the first time and perhaps the only time we’ve been called and will ever be called to stay home for the best of our selves, neighbors and the world.

The world economy and our social behaviors will not be the same again, long after the Covid 19 pandemic has passed, society to will never be as we knew it before. Yesterday I went to visit my sister and my niece came running to hug me, returning that hug felt like murder, I had betrayed the code, I had regrets, I could never have gone over, I’d been driving places, that morning I’d visited my Auntie, two Uncles and now my sister who has two kids and a live in house manager, hugging just one felt like murdering the whole family, Sister kept asking the younger niece to come hug uncle Isaac, the older niece just came running, she’s 12yrs old and I now know she wasn’t properly educated about the contagion rate of this virus, for most people, the listed guidelines have been followed to the last letter, for example, whenever I go to visit mum and dad, I am asked to wash hands under supervision, then sanitize before I’m allowed to sit in their sofas, we’ve not hugged or shook hands with my parents since this happened. They continue to blame me for not stopping work even when I know how dangerous this is. They even called me a merchant of corona and they do not fancy the idea of visiting them a lot! My parents have changed, the virus has changed things.

There are lots of things we’ve learned through this lock down, there is a lot we’ve done too, and in another similar blog I will share my experiences, lessons, loses and regrets of the great lock down of 2020 but today I want to write about an issue that was raised by someone and it picked traction last night. Small Pay, Exploitation, Fame and the Gig Economy. And I want to deliver my answer to Sheila Gashumba.

On the night of Friday 1st May 2020, we were glued on our TV screens because we couldn’t go to happening places, TV stations in Uganda have revolutionized how we party, the disco was brought to the living room.

In the middle of that enjoyment way past midnight, one of Uganda’s socialites and media personality Sheila Gashumba begun a rant about small pay and exploitation in Uganda’s media space, in a series of tweets, Sheila asked everyone in the entertainment industry to “value themselves” she went on to write “Fame wont pay your bills but money”. In the tweets that followed that, she detailed her journey to fame, the costs involved in each TV appearance and the extremely little pay she was given. She also indicated that to some media houses, a 30min show with a good sponsor would pay up to 25m ugx but the presenter would be paid a mere 100,000 Ugx. For more of this rant, you can visit @sheilaGashumba on Twitter.

Like any person raising a valid point and with a good number of followers, Sheila received massive support from her followers and she set a trend that went into the following day, it’s that trend that has me up on my keyboard trying to document my personal experiences, lessons, opinions and a response to Miss Gashumba.

Before I delve into criticism and a defense for small pay, I want the record to state that I believe Sheila raised a very valid point, she spoke for millions of Ugandans, she spoke for me, and many others whose voices may never be heard, I hope that voice influences change in the halls of power and I hope someday we get equity at the work place and in life. That is a controversial proposition but hope is hope.

This is My Short Story

After I’d finished writing my last UACE exam, the year was 2009, I went home on vacation. I applied for a job, the very first job I got was waiting plates at a restaurant in Mulago Hospital, Good Samaritan was the name if I got it correct, I was to receive 150,000 a month including transport, I wasn’t allowed to eat the food at work, for some reason I do not recall, I lived at home in Nsangi, I took the job and worked diligently, then I did some small math and discovered I was going to spend all that income in transport and even more, my overly supportive parents were okay giving me transport daily so I could go to work, they did not like me staying home doing nothing. After three weeks of work, I determined that that was not the kind of job I wanted and that there was no growth in that area, so I quit, was never paid. I went home one evening from work and I didn’t wake early for work the following day, my parents were disappointed, they asked me to push one more week so I at least get paid, I was done, I told them I needed to pray for direction in my life and I needed sometime off to understand what I wanted to do.

There was a school construction site going up in the neighborhood, I’d known about the process of the construction but I did not want to be involved in construction, one day I went to the site to see what was happening, while onsite, I helped the welder with his job, cutting steel, carrying finished welds over to storage and getting measurements, after a day or two he begun paying me, 25,000 Ugx, that was 10,000 ugx more than the site porters and 5,000ugx more than the masons on site then. Two weeks later, while in a discussion, the main site contractor noticed my ability to negotiate, my special abilities to interact with people, my good command of the English language and the fact that I was a bit educated. He selected me to be his assistant and driver, this got me from being the welding helper to the now purchasing officer of the ‘company’. When that school site was done, we did three more projects with the contractor before I quit to start my own business, a coffee and snack shop in my village. We named it Café M-Link. We run it for a shot period before we realized it wasn’t a good idea considering the village setting of our area, people did not fancy eating out and if they did, it wasn’t for a snack and oh, village people don’t get the idea of coffee. I wound up that business and with support from my parents, we opened up a used electronics shop in Kampala, I successfully run that shop for 7yrs, went back to university and obtained my degree.

After I wrote my last university exam, I discovered I needed exposure in the areas of my profession, so I closed shop, got an opportunity to travel to UAE for a month to study a lot about Technology and how much technological advancement there is around the world, when I returned, I had lost all interest in working at the electronics shop, it made money but I needed much more than money. So, I closed shop and went home again, this time I’d do freelance repair jobs to earn a living but I was focused on a bigger exposure.

A few months later, I received a call from my current employer, they invited me for a meeting and in that meeting we discussed about forming a technology company, with key interests in soft security solutions. My exposure from UAE came into play, my education would support my ability to execute my tasks but the exposure in UAE had given me access to more information than I ever imagined I’d get, I knew where the markets were, I knew about shipping, costs, I had direct contacts with potential suppliers and I knew how these products worked. They asked me to ‘help’ set this up, it was a job offering but without pay! I took it anyway.

The months that followed were for preparations, I met with prospective clients, prospective suppliers, I did marketing for the products and mush more, I was the company’s lone employee and I managed everything except finance, there wasn’t anything to manage in that docket. Our total stock was 18pcs! For vehicle tracking units, but was pitching for business from people who owned hundreds of fleets. I was relentless, I talked to whoever cared to listen and wasted the time of whoever had some extra on them. Then I got my first two clients, I supplied, and then another one, then I run out of stock and the clients did not pay, two of my first clients left me, they never paid, I still have the third one to date.

One day one of my potential suppliers offered to help us start, they told us to name a number and they’ll ship that stock to us and we pay in small installments as we sell, that was a turning point. Right there in that meeting, I knew we’d hit the jack pot, my colleague was somehow overwhelmed, we’d never expected to get such a generous offer, in an instant, my colleague mention 60pcs! I was so fortunate that the supplier did not hear that, I was so quick to interject, I told him 1,000pcs and jaws dropped! The meeting was adjourned and the supplier extended that offer to mid-day the following day, he told us we could go back and discuss it and then find a position as a company. That was both the defining moment of my career and the company’s future, I wasn’t going to let a good offer go wasted but I also did not want to place this baby company into a huge debt we’d never be able to get out, this story is for another day, in a book perhaps but to cut it short, we took the offer, we received stock to a tune of $27,000 and the rest is now history.

Because of this stock, I was able to supply to bigger clients, my confidence levels overshot, I created payroll, and employed other people to join the ‘team’. The almost 8months I went without pay did not mean anything because I knew I was creating something bigger than a check.

My story may not relate with that of Sheila and many in the entertainment industry, most Ugandans will not even get a shot at employment that myself and Sheila got but I want to write to those who got that shot. And I want to write in bold. Yes, money is important, but its not always about money.

If the employed has no defined goals, future prospects and all, money can come in as easily as it leaves, I believed Miss Gashumba when she said fame wont pay bills money will but I also know many business which would offer her free services in return for her appearances on some of their products, I know make up places that would consider giving her free make up for a TV appearances in return for a shout out on TV, or an apparel store that’d offer free fittings in return for a shout out on social media or elsewhere. When presented with an audience, any user can turn that audience into cash, the cash doesn’t necessarily have to come from the cash office of the employer.

Ones ability to use that fame for cash is what defines one’s financial gains from the limelight, we have received a lot of things because we know someone who has them, so we don’t necessarily have to buy them sometimes. What the lock down has taught me is that while money is important, we can literally survive with less of the money but more of the network, the connections. Because, we all know there are lots of things that money won’t buy.

How can I turn fame into money?

I will use the Indian Model of doing business, I have tried to study how India consumes almost 90% of the products made in India and how its nearly impossible to get the Israel Shekel. I don’t know if there are rules guiding these nations on this but an average Indian will have almost 90% of their household items manufactured in India, even when that Indian lives in the United States or Uganda. In Israel, money will rotate around the community so many times before it leaves, this means when a person wants to buy something, they’ll look around their community first before going out.

In Uganda, we are yet to embrace that culture, we don’t do that yet, possibly because of the wannabe syndrome, we want to be like other people, we don’t have a culture of supporting our own, we think imported items would be better than those manufactured here, I’m guilty of this, Hisence is a TV brand probably assembled in Uganda but I prefer LG or Samsung so I import that kind, we even import furniture for our homes even when we have extremely good carpenters in our neighborhoods, an average Ugandan will have 90% of their household items imported , including many items that are manufactured in their neighborhood. On this I am guilty as charged.

That said, the entertainment industry is also heavily hit by the wannabe syndrome, this has heavily limited how those working in the entertainment industry can leverage fame to make money, Media Houses should pay more for the talent they have In front of those cameras but also media personalities should leverage that exposure to expand their influence, create frontiers that will sustain them way after the TV face has faded, they should expand networks and create alliances that reach far beyond their media houses’ strength. We all do not fully depend on our jobs, and that brings me to the final segment of this long write-up, the gigs.

Besides my known day job, I am an IT consultant consulting with various agencies, I’m also a reviewer and supplier of special ICT equipment, name something, I’ll look it up, find a way of shipping it and set it up for you if you also can’t. that is my gig and that’s my share in the gig economy, I will not go into the statistics because there might me none or if there is, the data might be incorrect, but the gig economy is by far the larger that the employment economy in Uganda. People make much more from their gigs or call them side hustles than they earn from formal or official employment, this is a fact and it’s undisputed. The formal job helps us make our gig better, the formal job fuels the gigs activities, it helps me find address, it helps me get the resources and the connections required to make my gig work. Leveraging fame to create a gig is what Sheila should be advising current and upcoming media personalities including those in the entertainment sector which I can’t review with authority for luck of interest in the area. But if I may, I will consider a few examples,

1. A lady who presents that wedding show on TV can also run a small service provision organization behind the screen, people will want to be on TV so they’ll possibly come asking, telling them that you will do the Videography is leveraging employment, it wouldn’t matter what she’s paid, the videography gig can pay almost each weekend.

2. Most Ugandans are wanabes, a guy presenting an entertainment show can also run a small apparel shop, the fame can lead people to the shop, most may want a picture with the celebrity but they’d buy stock, that is business and something you can take a loan for.

Fame is not useless, not leveraging fame is what is useless, these gigs can be perfected over time and if well managed, they can be turned in to perfect employment long after a personality is replaced on the TV screen or way after the juice is wasted and that TV face has faded.

In conclusion, while Miss Gashumba raises a very legitimate and valid point about the pay for TV personalities, and while her opinion that Fame won’t pay bills but money will seems valid, she forgets that one can leverage fame to establish something that will stay long after the fame is gone, that’s not what many TV personalities are doing, that’s why we have them calls for car washes to raise money for almost everything for a person who was very famous just a while back. Miss Gashumba should use that platform to tell her colleagues that there is more they can get out of fame than just a pay; they can create more sustainable income for themselves.

#Fame #Gigs #Employment #Uganda