A whole new crop of UNC seniors will graduate on May 14. Some will enter graduate school and others full-time employment or internships. Others will enter the giant “gig economy,” working in short spurts as independent contractors.
While taking advantage of the flexibility and financial opportunities this sort of work provides, these Tar Heels should also be open to the idea of organizing with other freelancers to prevent poor working conditions and build social ties.
When we talk about the gig economy, we don’t just mean driving for Uber on the weekends. According to an October 2016 report from the McKinsey Global Institute, the independent workforce in the United States and Europe makes up about 20 to 30 percent of the working-age population. Almost half of this group of independent workers does so as their primary source of income.
Contracted work provides wonderful flexibility for the contractor, who can choose where and when to work — and it shows huge potential to boost global economic efficiency. Unfortunately, it also has significant potential to be abused. Unscrupulous clients looking to outsource digital work can offer pitifully low wages, knowing an army of other freelancers may be willing to do the job for less.
Just as importantly, freelancing full-time can isolate the worker in a way that traditional jobs tend not to. As one South African freelancer put it, “When you work at a company you can just have coffee with someone. That element is missing.”
Freelancers can also feel less valued than they should. Apparently, freelance testers at Nintendo sometimes mooed to protest, feeling like cattle as they were shooed from point to point at the company (that’s according to a paraphrased statement — included in a recent Wall Street Journal article — from a woman who said she worked there).
Limited reports of bovine noises, of course, aren’t indicative of widespread freelance worker unhappiness. According to the McKinsey report, full-time independent workers who specifically chose freelance work are happier than (or just as happy as) analogous traditional employees by every job satisfaction measure the researchers used. The freelance economy clearly has the potential to be fulfilling for workers, in addition to being effective at producing wealth.
The promise of freelance work only makes organization to mitigate its potential and current downsides even more important. Some networks, like the aptly named Freelancers Union, already exist. These can and should help prevent social alienation among freelance workers by encouraging video chats and in-person meet-ups for geographically proximate gig workers, and by leading strikes or protests to advance fair and dignified treatment for freelance workers.
The gig economy is here to stay and grow. By uniting together, new Tar Heel freelancers can play a major role in ensuring this is good news.
