I published the following in a newsletter almost two years ago to the day. Has anything gotten better in the meantime? Has AI thrown the following questions about self-employment right out the window? Is formal education even required in an AI economy?
What Is a Gig and When Did It Become an Economy?
There are musicians in my family. I know what gigs mean to their economies. Freedom? Certainly. Self-determination? Oh, yeah! Stability and an ability to forward plan? Not much. Buying power? Can be ….sporadic.
Nevertheless, increasing numbers of people, notably millennials but others as well, have taken on self-employment as temporary serial service providers. Considered contractors, gig workers function largely outside the oversight of government, but also without the legal and social protections that full-time and part-time employees enjoy. Most gig workers can’t and don’t pay into pension plans, employment insurance plans or health benefit plans. Zero safety net.
There are numerous reasons why more and more people have gravitated to gig work, some really positive, self-affirming reasons, and some not so much.
Let’s focus on the positive first: there is something very appealing, especially to the young, unfettered and healthy, about having choice and time-control. You work as much as you want to, doing what you want to do, when you want to do it. Your income relates precisely to your efforts. If your skills command a good income, and you are a good money manager, you are free to use blocks of your time to travel, volunteer, write your novel – you get the picture!
Other young gig workers grew disillusioned with the kinds of jobs that were available to them upon graduation from college or university, and decided to forego life in the trenches of the local call center altogether. Instead, they opted for gigging as the decidedly less soul-crushing option.
And why couldn’t they find work in the fields they studied or trained for? I think there are two trends that combine to limit access to jobs young people would likely jump on, if only they could. One is that corporations and other employer entities got leaner a while back when money was tighter, and found that they liked the results, and continue to do more with less. Very good for the bottom line. The availability of giggers and other temp workers just adds to that attractive bottom line. Employers are more than happy to get the labor without the overhead.
Even in unionized workplaces, employers have chipped away slowly at the core of the unionized position which is full-time with contract benefits and protections. If the contract allows for temps, providing they become full-time employees after serving in place for a given time, companies get around it by dismissing the temp who is in place, and replacing him or her with a new temp. OR sometimes with the very same temp, but with a new ‘employment term’. It’s a slippery slope.
The second is that although Baby Boomers are on the way out, they are not yet gone, and tend to hang on to jobs longer, further reducing the availability of good jobs for young people. To be fair, often the reason they stay is to have enough income to continue to help their children. Their adult children, who may well be giggers. Catch 22, if ever there was one.
So, what of the gig economy? It looks like it might be a thing. And it shouldn’t be. Sure, self-employment has always been around, and there are people who would not ever want to live any other way. These are the independent, driven, entrepreneurial spirits who do great work and often are sources of employment for others in their communities. Some of them are genius innovators and they drive us all forward, or pull us in their wake.
But the majority of young giggers are not that, and are going to suffer buyer’s remorse. Perhaps as soon as their first child is born, or the day they are hospitalized with a work-related injury that no insurance covers. There are any number of triggers for remorse.
In an era when most of the wealth of countries rests in relatively few beautifully-manicured hands, isn’t it offensive that smart hard-working young people have so little to look forward to? The gig economy won’t cut it. If you’re one of the beautifully-manicured, loosen your purse strings, open your doors, and have the guts to let the giggers (and their shop-stewards) in.
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