Who are gig workers?
Gig workers are short-term independent freelance workers (Kuhn, 2016), who sell their service or product to an organization or directly to a market (Ashford, Caza & Reid, 2018).
How did the gig economy arise?
The world of work is changing from the "organization man" (Whyte, 1965) to the "company of one" (Lane, 2011).
The gig economy has expanded rapidly over the last decade. It is estimated that now at least 20% of U.S. workers work independently and outside of an organization (McKinsey & Co, 2016; Petriglieri, Ashford, & Wrzesneiwski, 2018).
All of the net growth in employment between 2005 to 2015 was attributed to the gig economy (Katz and Krueger, 2016).
Almost 40% of organizations plan to expand their use of independent, contingent workers in the next five years (Ernst & Young, 2018).
This evidence shows that the gig economy has arrived. The gig economy is not about the future anymore. But how prepared are we to tackle the challenges and thrive in this new world of work?
What are challenges of gig work?
+ VIABILITY CHALLENGE
Gig workers usually don't enjoy a regular and predictable basic income. Their work usually consists of short-term contracts which leads to a lack for financial predictability over the course of the year. This highly variable income can threaten individuals’ viability and make it difficult to sustain a desired lifestyle at some points of their career.
+ ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE
Gig workers have a lot on their plates. Not only do they have to complete the core tasks involved in their work, but there are also a variety of peripheral tasks involved in their deliverables. For example, they have to learn new platforms, secure work, bill clients, market themselves, etc. The logistics of conducting gig work requires that they learn to attend to "backroom" tasks whenever necessary while also carving out time for and space for their core work.
+ IDENTITY CHALLENGE
How do you know you who are as a professional when you do so many different things over the course of a year? Are you even an author if you have not written a book or even an article in close to a year? As they move between clients and work tasks over time, gig workers are constantly in the process of reclaiming and revising their work identities. The constant shapeshifting of their work roles can also make it difficult for them to clearly communicate who they are and what they can do. As a result, developing and maintaining a coherent sense of work identity is hard for some gig workers because of these day-to-day and client-to-client variations.
+ EMOTIONAL CHALLENGE
Gig work can be highly emotional. It is unpredictable and highly personalized, which is a perfect recipe for heightened emotions. As a result, gig workers may experience more extreme emotions with a wide oscillation between positive and negative poles.
+ RELATIONAL CHALLENGE
Gig workers often work remotely and rarely have the same “coworkers” for longer than a few months. Physical separation and relational instability can lead gig workers to feel alone without access to career mentors or role models. Disconnected from organizational networks, they also often lack skill development opportunities. Yet, at the same time, gig workers are required to conduct more "front stage work" to build their own brand and develop a demand for it. Taken together, these characteristics of the gig economy create relational challenges for gig workers.
+ CAREER-PATH CHALLENGE
Developing a long-term career in the gig economy requires individuals to forge their own career paths. The lack of clear and well-worn paths and career role-models can make doing so a challenge. In other words, there is no real map or even a GPS to help them to navigate the long-game!
Are all gig workers the same?
There are multiple dimensions to differentiate the gig workers:
Their level of skill, education, and training (Spreitzer et al., 2017)
Whether they opted in to the gig economy or were forced into this style of working (Campion et al., 2019; Spreitzer et al., 2017)
Their level of control over their work lives (i.e., do they have total control, or are some parts determined by the contractors?) (Barely & Kunda, 2006)
Whether they are full-time gig workers, or they moonlight as a gig worker as a side hustle (Caza et al., 2018)
Whether their future aspiration is to continue working as a gig worker in future or they prefer to go back to the traditional way of working whenever it is possible
Whether they work through contracts with an organization or sell their work directly to the marketplace (Ashford et al., 2018)
Whether they work in a profession with a history in the gig economy or they are involved in occupations that recently have been separated from the organization
And what is their temporal, administrative or physical attachment to companies (Ashford et al., 2007)