Once harmless small talk, the question “What do you do?” has become a universally dreaded one. “I scowl at the question, then smile and say ‘I write opera’,” offers Bones Tan Jones. “It always takes them off guard and leaves much up to the imagination, although I do end up having to explain a bit, which takes us into a whirlwind of trans-hyphenate-identities.”

Like 32-year-old Tan Jones, who is an artist-composer-martial artist-teacher-renegade herbalist-druid, many claim multi-hyphenated titles as it feels generous and pluralistic, but it can sometimes sound like a riddle if you’re the questioner. Because what someone is really asking, in the end, is not what you do — but how you’re surviving in this economy.

With 38% of the UK creative workforce holding a secondary creative job, and more than three in four British creative workers choosing temporary contracts for reasons other than instability, the multi-stranded career is clearly working.