Gig Economy

I remember 2 months back, there was GEPIWAT (Group Exercise, Personal Interview, and Word Association Test) Process for the upcoming batch in our college and I was one of the Volunteers for the same. In Group Discussion, a panel was given the topic of “Gig Economy”.

Gig Economy is a new concept where provisional, flexible jobs are commonplace and companies tend toward hiring independent contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees. This gives workers greater control of their time, money and lives.

During that period the concept had a more positive side to it. For instance, delivery guys used to get paid according to their one-day work or on payment on flexible bases. It is used by a lot of companies such as Oyo, Airbnb, Ola and Uber to name a few. This also means role reversal easily. A person can become a car driver for a month and choose food delivery for next depending upon the demand. It somehow gave more power to the worker as a whole.

But considering the current situation, the tables have turned. Workers who were provided with multiple opportunities are forced to stay at home due to the unavailability of jobs. Instead of finding one role. They are sitting idle. With India amid a 21-day lock-down, demand has collapsed at transportation and hospitality marketplaces.

There is a myth among the masses that gig economy work is usually the one that has less return on investment and people who are a part are actually paid less.  But the truth is that if a person is cultivated by the right skill set, they are bound to get more stipend even at times compared with full-time employees. For instance, With the advancement of technology and automation taking the world, deep learning jobs stand as one of the highest paying jobs. The professionals need the right skill set and knowledge of technological tools and programming languages. It is then followed by another interesting job that is the one in the field of cryptocurrency. Some other fields include robotics, data analysts, AWS, coders and developers etc.

When times are good, marketplaces see their valuations soar as they attract large amounts of capital, a fraction of which goes to their drivers and suppliers. When the bad times come, platforms simply wait for them to pass, leaving workers and suppliers to foot the bill.

Surely this is an important question to consider. The gig economy has left workers vulnerable to risk in this pandemic. Is it better than the traditional form of employment?