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Common Assumptions About Gig Workers

By Brett Frazer posted 04-26-2019 12:00 AM

  

What’s your gig?

We hear a lot of talk about gig these days, especially here as that is what our topic is about, yet the word itself has had many meanings across the years.

Historically a gig was a small 2 wheel, horse-drawn carriage, although I doubt any of us have ever thought of it in that context outside of visiting a Museum.

For many of us over 25 the first time we would have been exposed to or used gig would have been in reference to going to see a local band at a pub or night club.

As the tech economy grew, it wasn’t the workforce phenomenon but data memory/storage that expanded gig throughout our lexicon.

This brings us to the gig we are referring to here. Dictionary.com lists the related definition as “any job, especially one of short or uncertain duration.” I guess how you look at “once of short or uncertain duration” can vary. I have Sun Basket Experts (our gig staff) who have been helping other customers for much longer than over half my internal staff. So does that make it truly a sort duration? Or is it because they only work for short bursts at a time, not being constantly ‘on the clock’ that classifies it as Gig? Or is it because this whole economy is seen by some as a short term phase?

That last question is covered by Forbes in this interesting quick-read article published yesterday by contributor Abdullahi Muhammed about the "4 Common Myths About The Gig Economy Debunked."

One somewhat, but not totally surprising statistic he shares when looking at the Myth that gig work only appeals to Millennials is that “According to a recent PwC survey, 65% of workers over the age of 50 have expressed a keen interest in becoming independent workers and a significant number of people using gig work platforms are aged over 40.” I wasn’t surprised as most of my gig Experts are over 40, and loving it.

What are some other assumptions you have about gig workers?


#GigEconomy
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