The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want

This book caught me at the right time. It may be discomforting to read about the changes it describes but the message is optimistic and hopeful.The fundamental premise of The Gig Economy, a buzz term you will hear more and more, is that we shouldn't continue to live like it's the economy of the 50s or the 80s anymore. Loyalty between employers and employees is not what it once was and job security has always been a comforting fiction.Just like investors have a varied portfolio in order to hedge against the unexpected and reduce risk, we ought to begin regarding our active income in the same manner. Having several streams of income from projects and opportunities will mean that job loss no longer has the same meaning or devastation. The other sources of income keep you afloat.Diane skillfully articulates, using brief, easy to understand chapters and bulleted lists, that companies and employees are shifting toward contract positions because of the time and resources it frees up.She mentions that the legal definition of employee will change and with that the expectation of benefits. Companies like Uber already classify workers as contractors and don't provide benefits. Many will argue this is a raw deal but others will point out the tradeoff is the value of time and determining when and for whom you work.Other topics include the generational shift toward access over ownership, a redefinition of traditional retirement and the notion of how work-life balance, innovation and fulfillment will be supported by these cultural shifts.As I alluded to in the first sentence, this book changed the course of my life. I consider it the straw that broke the camel's back. I was a mechanical engineer working in a corporate setting for 3 years out of college and asking myself if the 9 to 5 cubicle life was my destiny.I had only ever seriously considered the traditional trajectory with its promotions, schedules, management and meetings. The Gig Economy combined with 3 realizations: 1) Middle management in that context was not a worthwhile accomplishment for me 2) I had the most possible freedom and fewest obligations at that point in my life 3) Knowledge of a few too many deathbed regrets are about playing life safely and securely or endlessly pursuing status symbols.I resigned in June to become the host of a podcast and radio program as well as a freelancer. It's non-traditional but it's me and I look back with zero regret. Knowing myself, my time being mine and not being managed are invaluable changes.I make money as needed, research content topics for my Man V Mob podcast and radio show, am building a fascinating new network, am collaborating with many different and interesting people and daily have fascinating experiences that lend themselves to content generation.The Gig Economy inspired me to take a leap of faith and I'm so happy that I did. I'll work on and monetize projects of my choosing with people that I trust. I'll be a part of building something with others who engage freely and willingly.The Gig Economy isn't just a book or a buzz term--it's a mindset masterfully distilled here by Diane Mulcahey.

Five years ago Diane Mulcahy began teaching an MBA course at Babson College on the ‘Gig Economy.’ The course was named by Forbes as one of the “Top Ten Most Innovative Business School Classes” in the US.The Gig Economy is still in its early stages, certainly in South Africa, but is nevertheless disrupting how we work. Just one generation ago, the generally understood view of “real” work was to be a full-time employee in a secure full-time job, with the prospect of promotion.The current spectrum of work has at one end the traditional corporate job with the traditional career ladder. The employed are surviving in their full-time jobs, but will struggle if they lose them. At the other end are the unemployed.In between is a broad range and variety of alternative work, what Mucahy calls the Gig Economy.While there has always been contracting, consulting and part-time work, what is new is the spread of the Gig Economy into middle class and white-collar jobs. It is now baked into the business models of high-value businesses. ‘Gig’ work without benefits, used to be largely limited to the ‘bad jobs’ in fast food, retail, and other service companies, but is now transforming our labour markets. White-collar and professional work is now being restructured, contracted out, and purchased more cheaply.The good news is that skilled workers can turn good jobs into great work, and the less-skilled workers in traditionally ‘bad jobs’, can turn those bad jobs into better work.While the facts I describe below are from one of the most developed economies in the world, the US, the trend for emerging economies like our own, is already apparent. In some ways, even more severely so.The average life of an S&P 500 company was 67 years in the 1920s, but today it is just 15 years. This is not even long enough to have a traditional career in the largest companies in the US! This makes most jobs short term (less than five years for most age groups), and all insecure.In 2015, the rate of ‘retrenchments’ (a sanitised word for an awful human experience!) included companies such as Microsoft (7,800 workers), Proctor & Gamble (6,000 workers), JP Morgan Chase (5,000 workers), American Express (4,000 workers), and Target (2,250 workers). Walmart and McDonald’s both ‘shed’ hundreds of corporate jobs. High-growth technology companies like Twitter, Snapchat, and Groupon all retrenched staff in 2015.While government work, teaching, and academia, still offer relatively higher levels of security, they too are under pressure.Hiring an employee can cost 30-40% more than the equivalent independent worker with the added costs of taxes and other benefits.The size of the Gig Economy is staggering. Americans engaged in alternative work increased by more than 50% over the past decade, from 10% in 2005 to 15.8% in 2015. All the net employment growth in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015 appears to have occurred in alternative work arrangements, not from full-time jobs, Mulcahy points out. SA figures may be more extreme than that.What is driving the Gig Economy?Full-time employees have become the workers of last choice for many companies and this is even more pronounced in economies with strong labour laws. They are the most expensive and least flexible source of labour for companies. Despite this, companies are eliminating the full-time jobs they do have through retrenchment, downsizings, and reorganizations. When companies purchase the labour they need by the project, task or by the hour, they can realize greater efficiencies.Of course, this doesn’t mean that there won’t be some demand for full-time employees.Low-skill workers in the Gig economy have the chance of moving from a bad job to better work – a change in the right direction.“The Gig Economy is an economy of work, but our labour policies only offer benefits and protections to employees who work in traditional jobs,” Mulcahy notes about the US. We are hardly different.The larger part of The Gig Economy, deals with coping with this reality. Denial is a common strategy for dealing with job insecurity, but hardly a useful one.The question this book answers, is how to successfully navigate the Gig Economy.The first order of business is to articulate your deeply held version of success: What is my definition of a good job, a good career, and, even, a good life? (This is far too important a question to answer quickly. It is a good question to have buzzing about your head while on vacation.)There are two mindsets that we need to consider: The employee and the opportunity mindset.The employee mindset seeks to answer: What job can I get? A worker with an employee mindset wants an employer to structure a career for her with a predefined version of success at the top, by way of title and salary. This is a relatively passive mindset.The opportunity mindset seeks to answer: What work can I do, and what value can I bring? Those with an opportunity mindset think more strategically about what skills, experiences, networks, references, and knowledge they will require for a better future. This takes more effort than an employee mindset, but is far less risky.“Diversification is the new normal of the Gig Economy,” Mulcahy explains. This is opening new opportunities, networks, and skills. (The ever-prescient Charles Handy used the term “portfolio workers” for this idea in 1999 in the Age of Unreason.) A portfolio worker purposefully chooses to build a diversified life made up of multiple roles and projects, both paid and unpaid. Income is derived from ten to twenty places every year, so if one ends, one doesn’t have to worry.For many readers, a full-time job or a significant contract assignment could be, at least temporarily the anchor gig of the portfolio.Mulcahy has 10 rules for succeeding in the Gig Economy. I note just a few, briefly.Diversify by identifying and then finding gigs to increase your opportunities, improve your skills, and expand your network. Face the fear you have of entering the Gig lifestyle by breaking the fears into manageable risks, and developing an action plan to overcome them. Be mindful of your time and spend it on what matters. Restructure your financial life, and increase your financial flexibility and security. In this vein think access, not ownership. Access the things you want with less debt and more flexibility such as the Baby Boomer myth of home ownership. Save for a traditional retirement, but don’t plan on having one.Your father (or grandfather) probably had one job in his lifetime. Today you might have six. Your young children will probably have six jobs at the same time. They are likely to enter a workforce where fewer people are full-time employees in full-time jobs. Having a diverse portfolio of work will be the new normal, and being a full-time employee for a single employer, the exception.“When we ask kids of the future what they want to be when they grow up they won’t have an answer. They’ll have a list,” explains Mulcahy.Readability Light --+-- SeriousInsights High -+--- LowPractical High -+--- Low*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.

This book is an absolute must-read and a huge eye-opener about the way work and our economy are evolving. The author makes a powerful case that the Gig Economy is here to stay and there's simply no turning back. Yet she presents this as an opportunity rather than something to be afraid of or intimidated by. Although the book talks about both the pros and cons of the Gig Economy (in terms of the fact that there are both winners and losers), it convincingly presents the pros as far outweighing the cons and is extremely energizing in walking readers through the various ways of taking advantage of these pros. The writing style is clear, crisp and easy to follow and it delivers a wealth of practical advice and information often in the form of grabbing and compelling sentences that really made me stop and think. My all time favorite: the last line, which reads, "When we ask kids of the future what they want to be when they grow up they won’t have an answer. They’ll have a list."

Interesting book, but I still think it's more stuck on theory than actual practice. For those of us who expected to have the 1 employer workplace our parents had, and do NOT have, I'd like to know more about how to manipulate the "gig economy", not just how it works.

Had to purchase this book for a sociology course, but I found it to be a good and educational read.

Great

Il libro incoraggia chi si trova per scelta o ... per scelta di altri in condizioni di lavoro free-lance a trovare la propria dimensione, motivazioni, dignità professionale e anche alcuni trucchi di sopravvivenza che non sono sempre ovvi. Peccato solo che probabilmente in Italia la mentalità sia ancora quella del posto fisso, e non solo perché abbiamo un mercato diverso e forse più ristretto di quello USA, ma anche perché, fortunatamente, abbiamo una cultura meno "usa e getta" anche in campo lavorativo. In sintesi: ottimo per una ventata di ottimismo e di fiducia nelle proprie risorse... Ma da non prendere come oro colato.

An evolving concept, will help people who are tied to the concept of 'safe job'. Towards the middle of this books, concepts are repeated from other books, but overall, quite an interesting read

Very interesting book, highly recommended, the book has stories that relate to individuals while provoding high level analysis, the combination makes a very interesting read