everyone's talking about the gig economy
but what exactly are they talking about
is it big or small exciting or
terrifying good for your health or bad
for it the first thing to know about the
gig economy is that not everyone
actually agrees on what it means as the
name suggests is about people who earn
money from doing a series of gigs or
tasks some people use that term to apply
to everyone who works independently
including lawyers and plumbers but of
course the notion of working for
yourself is nothing new what is new is
the invention of digital platforms that
connect customers with workers to
perform tasks on demand that task could
be to do someone's ironing translate a
document from Arabic to English deliver
a pizza or drive someone home from a
nightclub there are a host of gig
economy platforms from up work or hourly
nerd for tasks that are done online to
Oberon delivery for tasks that are done
in person the Uniting feature is that
they match workers to customers and they
use their technology to facilitate the
payment while taking a cut for
themselves they say they're
intermediaries not employers others
disagree that's a question being
thrashed out in courts in the US the UK
and elsewhere if you live in a city
teeming with ubers you might think the
gig economy is huge already but actually
the number working in it is still pretty
small but it is significant in the UK
one think-tank says about three and a
half percent of the workforce are in the
gig economy that's about the same number
as worked for the National Health
Service the UK's largest employer this
is a growing army of workers without
workplaces colleagues or bosses what
does that mean for their health and
safety in some ways it could be positive
the gig economy is based on the idea of
working whenever you want having a job
where you can easily nip out to deal
with something personal studies show
that's one of the best indicators for
high well-being but some health experts
are worried flexibility might be good
for your health
but loneliness and isolation are bad for
it gig workers don't have line managers
to keep an eye out for them instead
their regular contact is with an
algorithm that doesn't know how they're
feeling today or what personal problems
might have cropped up the algorithm just
sends them tasks and monitors their
performance some algorithms also
deactivate workers from their platforms
if there are performance issues that can
create pressure and when the platform
sets the fee per task some workers feel
they can only increase their earnings by
working ever longer hours driving or
cycling in traffic can be dangerous at
the best of times let alone when you're
tired and stressed for health experts
one thing is clear there's an urgent
need to investigate the benefits and the
risks of this new world of work
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