Qu'est-ce que Slash Worker / Portfolio Professional ?

Definition

A slash worker (or portfolio professional, after Marci Alboher who coined the term in 2007) is someone who simultaneously pursues multiple distinct professional identities — described with slashes: teacher/coach, engineer/podcaster, consultant/entrepreneur. Unlike a career changer, the slash worker actively maintains multiple activities rather than choosing between them.

In practice

Slash workers combine activities for various reasons: financial diversification; testing a transition gradually before fully committing; intellectual stimulation across different domains; building multiple income streams; or simply because they thrive with variety. From a legal standpoint in Belgium, combining salaried employment with self-employed activity is possible (as a complémentaire or bijberoep) — requiring registration with the BCE and a social insurance fund, with contributions calculated on the self-employed income above a certain threshold. Many slash workers use their primary employment as a stable income base while developing independent activities on the side. Employers are increasingly accommodating this — some explicitly support it as a retention mechanism for high performers who might otherwise leave fully for independence.

Key takeaway

Slash careers are not a compromise but an intentional choice — professionals who embrace multiple identities often find more resilience, stimulation and purpose than those who confine themselves to one box.