Gig economy: Is the world heading towards it?

Gig economy (Concepts and Trends): With uncertainties rising in the job market, access to technology that lets people work remotely, and opportunities to earn money online, more people are choosing to be part of the Gig economy (and work from home)

Technology today plays an important role in the economic activities across the globe, and over the years it has also spawned new forms of work in the job market – the Gig Economy. A “Gig” means temporary, one-off, transient kind of work. In the “gig economy,” also known as shared economy, workers are willing to do temporary jobs which are accepted and delivered over the Internet. Earlier limited to only a few countries, this trend is fast becoming popular across the globe. Another important characteristic of Gig Economy is that it is fast becoming borderless (Murata Hiromi, 2020), where a person sitting in one part of the world can bid for a piece-of-work offered by a business located in some other geographical location.

A gig economy involves segmentation of production, and there’s disaggregation of consumption via the various online platforms (Barzilay and Ben-David, 2017). With employment precariousness and work intensification increasing in jobs in recent years, the gig economy has been growing as people look for better work-life balance, seek more flexibility in working hours and are more comfortable working in a flatter work structure.

Another important characteristic of the gig economy is that it uses a more horizontal structure instead of the traditional hierarchical structure (Barzilay and Ben-David, 2017), which is commonly observed in the bigger organizations. A flat structure also offers other benefits, such as less discrimination, especially in the case of women workers. Women often face bias and discrimination at the workplace, but the same is non-existent or observed on a lesser scale in the gig economy as one can remain anonymous while working online. This is also one of the reasons why one finds better representation of women in the gig economy (Barzilay and Ben-David, 2017).

The era of industrialism was the time when work was given very high importance; for humans, it was practically placed at the centre of everything. For many in the society, the question ‘who am i’ was primarily determined by the occupation of a person. However, Marx feels it was not a great time for humans. As per Marx, during the era of capitalism, work was almost oppression for the workers who would eventually be physically exhausted and mentally degraded. In the early years of industrialization, owners and managers managed the workers by using imposed control which the workers found unpleasant. It was also the time when workers considered work as only a means to satisfy certain economic needs, and work not serve to provide any other meaning in life. Max Weber, on the other hand, presented a better view of the society and felt that large organizations were like bureaucratic setup and organizations made more systematic and rational use of labour.

Over the years, not only do jobs require workers to put in more number of hours, the intensification of the work has also increased. Just like there are limited number of hours in a day, human physical and mental capacities also have limits. Over the years work intensification has increased and there are several factors that have contributed to it. Technological and organizational changes, new policies related to labour and human resources, declining unionism at the work place, and job insecurity are some of the reasons that has resulted in work intensification (Burchell et al., 2002).

There was a time when people would retire working for the same company that they started their career with. However, that’s no longer the case; it is common for people to change companies every few years putting workers under more stress than ever before.

Over the years, Job insecurity and instability has increased in the market. Experts believe that employers can no longer guarantee very long-term jobs and temporary and permanent employees’ concerns towards job insecurity have become more or less similar, especially post the economic crisis (Lozza et al. 2012). Job insecurity refers to insecurity that arises due to dismissal, lay off, short-time working or threat to long-term job tenure (Burchell et al., 2002).

Because jobs are increasingly becoming insecure, employees are also under tremendous stress most of the times, which in turn leads to all kinds of ailments in workers thus leading to poor health (Moynihan, 2012). Having precarious employment raises anxiety in workers, affects their social relations at workplace and in the neighborhood, affects their personal and family life; most workers delay forming relationships and having kids. Many workers are so much engrossed by work and by its insecurities that it becomes difficult for them to form close friendships at work that could be called on in time of need (Chan, 2013).

Over the last few decades, cracks had developed in the relationship between employees and employers due to factors such as subcontracting, franchising and other things. Increased global competition among businesses, labour market deregulation in the market, restructuring of companies in order to become competitive, are some of the reasons why industries are looking for more flexible forms of employment.

All these factors have resulted in work becoming more precarious, which in turn makes companies layoff workers, especially those who are seen as performing ‘non-core’ work. To these factors that have caused weakening of the relationship between employees and employers, one can now also add ‘gig’ employment, which uses digital technology to perform smaller pieces of work (Flanagan, 2017).

We no longer live in a traditional work society where people followed life-long job paths. Neither can employers today guarantee that to workers, nor do the employees expect that from their employers. In the new world, things are less stable as far as jobs are concerned. Jobs can easily disappear or move from one location to another, skills can become irrelevant within a short span of time, welfare covers can be reduced or even eliminated by the organization and/or by the government. These are some of the reasons why there has been an increase in the Gig economy. So, in a way, traditional work practices are making way for new ideas and models for work in the twenty-first century (Beck, 1994).

As work in the modern world has become unstable, in recent years, a lot of people have started working for themselves. The changing economy and business practices has caused a shift in this trend, and advancements in technology and digitization makes it possible for people to work independently on their own. There are many workers who don’t see the logic of working on a full-time job and question themselves as to why they should work in an office or in a bank under strict guidelines and stressful working conditions when they can work from home and have much more flexibility, and all they need is a laptop and an internet connection.

As the number of people working in the Gig economy increases, work today means different things to different people. Each one has different expectations from their work and has a different perception of work in their lives. While lot of workers strive for work-life balance in the modern world, defining its exact boundary however is a challenge for many workers (Baldry et al., 2007).

While organizations no longer require unskilled and uneducated people, employees are also no longer placing high value on long term loyalty towards an organization, instead, a shift to the self has taken place. However, considering the workplace dynamics and the fluctuations seen in the economy, experts feel that a much wider section of the society has now become vulnerable. In earlier class-based societies, it was only the working-class people that would be victimized whereas the rich were immune to it, but it seems things have changed and that is no longer the case. In the modern world, all groups, including the rich, are threatened and global endangerment is gradually replacing the class society (Beck, 1992).

Globalisation, and the requirement of employers to have flexible labour market, is also giving rise to a new class of people, known as the ‘precariat’. This class of people have no security, stability, or predictability, and this severely impacts their ability to acquire material things or have some peace of mind. There are millions of people belonging to this class globally, who are without any sort of stability or security, and more importantly without any direction, and this class needs urgent political help (Standing, 2011).

Despite the challenges, one thing is certain that the gig economy is no longer a novel idea; millions of people around the world are already a part or almost all of their earnings. Gig workers love the flexibly of their jobs that provide them with a high degree of freedom, and allow then to work from anywhere and anytime of the day or night. One of the reasons for the growth of the gig economy in some regions, especially the West and which may eventually spread throughout the globe, is due to the growing number of brokers that are able to provide jobs to workers via online platforms. These brokers use tech tools such as websites and apps to list work offered by businesses, and allow gig workers to bid for those work (Murata Hiromi, 2020). And with Covid-19 badly affecting the global economy, the Gig economy may get an unexpected acceleration (Ian Huntermay, 2020). For some workers employed in full time jobs, this could also be the right time to take a separate path and work as entrepreneur within the independent economy, or take that idea and turn it into a startup.

Remote Workers Are Happier Employees But Companies Need To Make It Safer And Easier

Working in a home office is becoming popular; however, as a home office worker, security concerns and better communication is always a concern.

Several surveys have revealed that employers who allow their workers to telecommute report happier employees and report less absenteeism in the workforce when telecommuting is allowed.

However, for a remote worker, finding quick help when technology fails is a challenge. You’re not in the office; so access to the companies IT support is not near by.

Surveys survey that:

• Very few employees are trained on data backup/security best practices.
• Majority of employees name poor VPN connection as their biggest tech challenge when working from home.
• Majority of employers report that their telecommuters have connectivity problems several times per month or more. Only a small percent of employers offer furniture services to new telecommuters.

 

Possible solution to these challenges include:

• Equipping the Workforce – With IT connectivity issues a main concern, telecommuting programs should ensure easy access to email, document sharing, instant messaging and video conferencing. Providing remote VPN capabilities to telecommuters is also important for easy network access.
• Employee Actions – Having employees set up lock screens is one simple step businesses can take.
• Implementing Security Measures – Encrypting device-side data by adding another layer of protection is important in the event an attacker manages to bypass a lock screen or finds a backdoor.
• Furnishing Office Spaces Appropriately – It’s important to consider furniture options in telecommuting programs, from ergonomic furniture to items like desk and drawer organizers. This will help telecommuters make their home offices more productive. In addition, more and more offices are designed with telecommuting in mind. Layouts and furniture options should accommodate a more mobile workforce who telecommutes occasionally, providing open spaces that allow people to move throughout an office based on their work needs.

 

References

Baldry, C., Bain, P. and Taylor, P. et al. (2007) The meaning of work in the new economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Barzilay, A.R. & Ben-David, A. (2017) Platform inequality: gender in the gig economy. Seton Hall Law Review, 47(2): 393-431.

Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: SAGE

Beck, U. (1994) The Brave New world of work. London: Polity Press.

Burchell,B., Ladipo, D., and Wilkinson, F. (2002) Job insecurity and work intensification. London: Routledge.

Chan, S. (2013) ‘I am King’: the paradox of precarious work. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 24(3): 362–79

Flanagan, F. (2017) Symposium on work in the ‘gig’ economy: Introduction. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3): 378-381.

Ian Huntermay (2020), COVID-19 – Accelerating the Gig Economy [Online]. Available at https://www.uctoday.com/contact-centre/ccaas/covid-19-accelerating-the-gig-economy

Lozza, E., Libreri, C. and Bosio, A.C. (2012) Temporary employment, job insecurity and their extraorganizational outcomes, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 34(1): 89 – 105

Moynihan, R. (2012) Job insecurity contributes to poor health, British Medical Journal, 345(1): e5183-e5183.

Murata Hiromi (2020) The Gig Economy Reaches Japan [Online]. Available at https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00547

Standing, G. (2011) The precariat: the new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Academic Questions

Question: Some say that the contemporary world of work is heading towards the ‘gig economy’. Critically discuss the pros and cons of gig work for organisations, workers, and the wider society.