6.2: National and Global Workplace Trends

The Gig Economy

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, people have been looking at new ways of working that will not leave them so exposed to losing their income. Self-employment is not a new concept — tradespeople and creatives are used to finding work from various sources — but the emergence of centralized digital platforms selling services or products has led to the explosive growth of the gig economy. Many workers are turning away from a “9 to 5” job in favor of independent work where there is no long-term relationship between buyer and seller, hence the use of the term “gig.” This type of work also can be known as a “side hustle” (Lee, 2018).

To understand the scale and motivations of the growing independent workforce, the McKinsey Global Institute conducted a 2016 survey involving 8,000 workers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, France and Spain. The survey found that independent work was becoming more mainstream with digital platforms creating large marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers who can communicate in real time. The 2016 data indicated 20 to 30 percent of the workforce across the US and EU-15 countries were involved in independent work (Lee, 2018).

Some examples of companies offering independent or gig work include Uber and Lyft for car-sharing and delivery services, Airbnb and VRBO for short-term or vacation rentals, and Etsy for selling artistic creations. For people looking for local services in the home or office, TaskRabbit and Airtasker make light work of everyday tasks. Food delivery companies that hire independent contractors include DoorDash, UberEats and GrubHub.

For workers who can deliver via the internet, digital platforms have opened up global markets, creating a surge in home workers offering services to startups or businesses needing a more flexible workforce or specialized skills for one-off projects. On platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and People Per Hour, freelancers provide creative services that include website design, content creation, coding, and consultancy. Even legal services are being transformed through platforms such as Lawyers on Demand, Lawpath and Legal Zoom, making the legal process of setting up a business easier and cheaper (Lee, 2018).

Why are more people choosing to join the gig economy?

Flexible work schedules and independent work offers flexibility to students funding higher education, to parents caring for young children, and to Millennials and Gen Y looking to swap a corporate career for a portfolio career. Freelancing also offers a top-up income or a “side hustle” for people already in part-time or full-time jobs (Lee, 2018).

Greater Control

Freelancers control their work and pricing. They may also choose who they work with to match their skills, experience, interests, and values. This choice gives greater rewards, not limited to or even necessarily financially but perhaps also in terms of job satisfaction.

Freelancers have greater choice over where they work. This flexibility helps provide an improved work-life balance, especially relevant in the United States where paid time off or vacation leave can be limited, and the corporate culture can involve long hours in the office to show commitment.

Home-based working environments could provide freelancers with protection from office workplaces that can be toxic, especially in large corporations with a vertical hierarchy and one-way communication rather than an open, collaborative culture. Promotion can be influenced by favoritism in the form of the halo effect or by prejudice based on gender, sexuality, race, or disability.

In traditional workplaces, people can feel removed from the end user, which impacts job satisfaction. Freelancers often deal directly with clients and on team projects, they collaborate with colleagues on an equal footing. Knowing that outcomes relate directly to their performance, independent workers can be more motivated to produce high-quality work (Lee, 2018).

What are the challenges of independent working and drawbacks of centralized platforms (apps)?

Gig workers can face issues with income security, employment rights, credit availability and safety. Income security can be affected by a digital platform’s payment structure. With a low-cost, low-skill entry, the pool of workers competing for gigs on these platforms has swelled, causing a race to the bottom on pricing with workers often accepting below minimum wage rates. Earnings can be unpredictable with gaps between gigs causing difficulty in meeting living costs. Self-employed workers also may be denied access to financial products, such as mortgages, personal loans, and personal pensions. Centralized digital platforms are vulnerable to data breaches and cyber-attacks that could make order history, client communications, and outstanding work and payments unavailable. Social isolation is a concern because freelance working can be lonely with associated risks for mental health. Communication and relationships between buyers and sellers are often short-term, and a sense of workplace community could be lacking. In direct service gig work, personal safety could be a concern when gig workers have customers in their cars or homes and are delivering products to private entities.

Much can change in the next decade, but the independent workforce or gig economy is growing. Governments, businesses, and individuals would be wise to prepare for the possibility of a ‘Yellow World’ where “technology creates and supports the open, honest, collaborative community”. Unlike centralized platforms that create a culture of competitive individualism, blockchain-based platforms promote a culture of collaboration and co-operation for everyone’s benefit (Lee, 2018).

Remote and Hybrid Work - Work From Anywhere

Although many technology-based organizations have allowed employees to do some work from home in the last twenty years rather than working only on-site, the COVID-19 global pandemic rapidly increased the incidence of work being conducted from anywhere with an internet connection in many knowledge-based professions. In 2020, many state and local governments issued “stay at home orders” and required most businesses to shut down their in-person operations. Employees suddenly were asked to work from home using communication technologies such as Zoom and Google Meet. Data, company information and work tasks were accessed online through virtual private networks (VPNs) or similar technology. Students and teachers at all educational levels attended and participated in classes using communication apps and online learning management systems such as Google Classroom, Canvas, Blackboard and Brightspace (D2L). In fact, many parents of school-aged children were asked to ensure their children were participating in classes and even were expected to help teach their children leading to the expectation that adults would be present in the home which necessitated working from home if possible.

As the pandemic continued with alternating surges and reductions in cases, organizations began to develop more permanent “work from anywhere” or hybrid policies and procedures. As of the writing of this OER, some Fortune 500 companies allowing for completely remote work include Adobe, Fujitsu, Nationwide, Pratt & Whitney and Cisco (Crossover, 2022). IBM, Amazon and Twitter are allowing teams and/or individual workers to decide where they work, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is allowing flexible scheduling including working remotely, in the office or a combination (Crossover, 2022). Many employees in careers where technology allowed work to be completed outside the office or off-site realized important benefits such as greater productivity and flexibility and reductions in commuting time. In fact, a phenomenon known as the “great resignation” occurred when forced changes to work environments caused employees to reconsider their relationships with their employers and workspaces. Many employees realized they wanted more flexibility and time at home for personal pursuits outside of work after realizing how much time they had been spending commuting and being in the office.

An important caveat is that service-oriented careers such as the hospitality industry (restaurants and hotels), barbers/cosmetologists and skilled trades (plumbing, HVAC, electrical, home building/remodeling) were not able to transition, in most cases, to online work. Therefore, many workers in these industries suffered in the first year of the pandemic during shut-downs when their industries were at a standstill and simply were not permitted to operate. Although activity levels in these industries have rebounded and actually increased in several industries as of 2022, employees left these fields when their work was unavailable, also part of the “great resignation,” which has led to staffing shortages.

The hybrid or “work from anywhere” movement continues to be in a state of flux. In late 2021 and early 2022, many employers, including Tesla and Apple, who allowed work from home in 2020 called their employees back to the office at least for parts of the work week. Although many knowledge workers indicated they felt more productive working from home and not having to commute, employers who required their employees to return to the office seemed to value the management control a traditional office-based setting offers, and these employers cited the creativity and collaboration that could occur more readily in face-to-face, in-person work environments. As a potential employee, you will need to determine whether your interests and skills lie in working independently or in a hybrid situation from an off-site location such as your home or in a traditional workplace location requiring in-person interactions with colleagues and supervisors.

Social Media Careers

Individuals use social media to share their stories with the world, and organizations use social media to advertise their products and services. Social media applications (apps) include LinkedIn, Facebook (Meta), Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and many others. The widespread use of social media all over the world has given rise to careers that didn’t exist only 10-20 years ago. Influencers use social media to speak for a brand, business or organization and explain how they use the products or services in their personal lives. Influencers often are compensated by the businesses whose products they use. Bloggers and online writers use social media to share research, personal insights and knowledge with a widespread audience. A popular example is travel writing/blogging where people earn money by traveling and writing about their experiences as they are compensated by the businesses they visit. Bloggers also can earn money by allowing advertisers to post on their blogs. Some occupation titles in social media listed on O*NET and LinkedIn include search marketing strategist, social media specialist/manager and brand marketing coordinator.

All of the careers listed above can facilitate “side hustles” as well. Social media’s pervasiveness and easy accessibility allows anyone with an interest and some technical skills to earn money on a part-time basis by posting stories, videos or blogs and monetizing their posts with advertising. Closely related to social media apps are platforms allowing crafting and selling such as Etsy, Handmade at Amazon, eBay and ArtFire. Creative people, crafters and entrepreneurs use these platforms to sell their own made products or resell others’ products. Whereas in the past, someone might have had a creative hobby and sold their products at local craft fairs or community events, now these selling platforms allow anyone to create an online store for their products. If you are a creative person, you may wish to investigate online opportunities to share your story content, research, reports and products as a way to earn money.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation

Artificial intelligence refers to computers being able to accomplish tasks that in the past could have been done only by humans. Examples include speech, vision and even cognitive tasks such as learning and remembering. Use of large language models such as ChatGPT is becoming widespread in workplace communication and publications. Automation is similar in that job tasks previously done by humans are completed by computers or machines. Examples are wide and varied and include garbage collection, surgical procedures, automobile manufacturing and even farming. The rise of artificial intelligence and automation has created a reduction in manual labor jobs in many industries. When considering potential careers, students are advised to research how artificial intelligence and/or automation has impacted the field and whether increased computer or machine usage will change how humans are employed in that field. Increased use of computers or machines in a certain field may not be negative, however, in that professionals are needed to build, program and operate those machines. Careers related to artificial intelligence and automation include data scientists, computer and information research scientists, mechatronics engineers and technicians, robotics engineers and technicians, software engineers and developers and validation/quality engineers.

Environmental Considerations

As climate change continues to be a worldwide concern, businesses and organizations are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment. Those strategies might include switching how they power their facilities from fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal sources. Other changes might be procedural to save energy such as fewer in-person meetings or less national/international travel. Sustainability is important to many workers and consumers, and organizations are looking for ways to appeal to their potential customers and employees. Examples of careers in renewable energy include environmental scientist, renewable energy analyst, energy engineer and auditor, heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) mechanic, solar thermal installer and technician.

Educational Attainment and Skill Maintenance

The days of getting on-the-job training in one career and continuing in that career for the next 30 years have vanished. Although on-the-job training still can be found, there is a need for employees to continue increasing their knowledge, skills and abilities to keep up with all-encompassing reliance upon technology in every field. Similarly, in many careers, there is a need to earn continuing education units (CEUs) or similar credentials to maintain qualification for existing positions. In the last 30 years or so, the United States has seen a continual increase in educational levels required for entry-level positions.

For example, as recently as the 1990s, registered nurses could earn a nursing diploma in a hospital-based nursing program then go into practice after passing a national or state exam. Associate degrees in nursing (ADN) became more available after World War II and remain as the most common educational path for registered nurses. Many community hospitals, the United States military and the Veterans’ Administration require higher-level education, however, and bachelors degrees in nursing (BSN) are becoming more common as the entry-level credential for registered nurses (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Nurses also have the option to continue their education with a master’s of science degree in nursing (MSN), and now there are even doctoral-level nursing programs to earn a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP).

Microcredentials are a relatively new method for employees to prove their educational attainment and to maintain skills. These short-term, skills-based training programs, also known as “stackable credentials,” allow workers to earn industry-recognized certifications or qualifications in related fields either as stand-alone credentials or “stack” the microcredentials into a longer educational program such as a bachelor’s degree (Marcus, 2020). Examples of microcredential certifications include project management, data analytics, cyber and network security and blockchain technology.