Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work

by Sarah Kessler

A millennial business journalist takes a colorful, character-driven dive deep into the gig economy.

More than one in three American workers is now a freelancer, and the gig economy, where workers are hired by the job—without the guarantee of steady hours or benefits—has quickly become an essential and seemingly permanent part of the U.S. labor market. High-profile, deep-pocketed tech startups like Uber and Airbnb are constantly in the news for the disruption they bring to the industries they overturn, but no one has yet zeroed in on the effects of this disruption on the largely millennial workforce carrying it out.

In the tradition of the great business narratives of our time, Gigged offers a deeply-sourced, story-driven account of this new economy as it has been experienced by real people working in a range of professions. Weaving together the voices and experiences of influential tech entrepreneurs, top-flight economists, and in particular on the workers themselves, Sarah Kessler wades through the hype and hyperbole the surrounds the gig economy.

Following a group of five main characters working in jobs that range from house cleaner to tech entrepreneur to business consultant, Kessler offers a deeply nuanced look at how the future of work is playing out in real time. She tackles the big questions surrounding the future of can jobs be both flexible and pay a sustainable wage? Will this generation ever do as well their parents? How can meaningful, well-paid work be made more accessible to all?

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Economics, Technology, Sociology, Audiobook, Finance

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2018

Reviews

[Phil Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years ago, I thought about writing a book on the gig economy. On many levels, I knew that it was going to be a big deal and recent events have only underscored its importance.

I'm glad that I didn't.

I couldn't have done a better job than Sarah Kessler did. A gifted storyteller, she adroitly stitches together facts, key court verdicts, and human stories. This is no screed against the future of work. At the same time, though, Kessler asks tough questions about what we want out of society and what society owes us.

Well done, Sarah.

[Stephanie Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished Gigged, by the brilliant writer Sarah Kessler. Over 6 years she reported on the rise of the gig economy, the countless enumerations on Uber’s model (Uber but for cat food!), and the folks who get swept into the promise of flexible work at good pay. Spoiler: most of them are disappointed by the gig economy, which wasn’t designed to empower the kinds of people who really *need* to work to survive. Sarah interweaves several intimate stories: one woman writes scripts to get alerts in the middle of the night so she can snatch jobs faster, then spends hours labeling products on Amazon; another man works hard from his trailer in rural Arkansas fielding customer service calls about broken air conditioners, then come autumn is out of a job, all the while competing with overseas operators who will work for far less money. It’s bleak, people. But some iteration of the gig economy represents the future of work — at least until the robots catch up.

[Kyle Minton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am once again plagued by books with important stories to tell. Late-stage capitalism has let loose a torrent of books by journalists and political commentators that focus on storytelling as an answer to suffering. The books center the authors as observers in individual people's tragic stories while contextualizing them with statistics and studies of the broader crises. Don't call it Gonzo Journalism, these authors aren't the main character even if they represent a real presence. They're more like hyper-knowledgeable observers, they're storytellers, disciples, Uatu; this is Gonzeaux Journalism.

I've read a number of these. Evicted by MatthewDesmond is about individuals caught up in the housing crisis, Our Kids* and TheShort and Tragic Life of Robert Peace are about inequality. Others, I have only heard about; The Working Poor: Invisible in America, Nickel and Dimed, Waiting for Superman, Fast Food Nation etc etc. In all of these (and more) the author inserts themselves as the arbiter of the tragic types of stories capitalism breeds, but their role sort of stops there. It's as though simply communicating the real trauma of the lives of their subjects will be enough to rally their readers to end the plight (although in each the call to action doesn't seem to extend beyond "think about it!").

I can now add Sarah Kessler's Gigged to the growing list. Along with Evicted, it's probably the best demonstration of why I'm so frustrated with this genre of book. The individual stories of those affected by capitalism are incredibly important and powerful, but if there is no radical vision or assessment for the improved condition of the subject (to say nothing of a call-to-action), what importance and power is there becomes greatly diminished.

Rather than discuss each of the subjects in Kessler's work, it's important to assess what end she is using them for. For example, Curtis is a technically gifted, socially aloof programmer who couldn't stand the mundanity of his 9-5 tech job; so, he quits and joins an army of gig workers doing programming work on his own time. Kessler presents Curtis' story as an ideal; this is the future of work the gig economy promised. His addition is no doubt to add a level of complication to the narrative, as though to say "we can't get rid of the gig economy! Look how it works for people like Curtis!".

This sort of thing drives me fucking nuts and it is a prevalent theme in Gigged. The one gig economy exec story is that of Dan Teran, CEO and founder of Managed by Q. MbQ is a cleaning company attempting to bring the Uber-style, app-based contingent workforce management to office cleaning. When the idea falls apart because the company didn't have the management skills to match the enormous amount of startup capital it received (another issue in the gig economy world that I feel like Kessler barely addresses), Teran and co take a different tract. They decide to be a "good employer", a company that attracts top tier cleaning talent by offering higher wages and other benefits. Go figure, the age-old "pay people more" strategy pays off. The inclusion of MbQ seems to suggest that in order to fix the issues in Gigged is if a number of companies decide to become "good".

The problem in all of this is that there is actually a lot of room in capitalist eco-systems for "good employers" and exploitation to co-exist symbiotically. The only time I was exposed to the concept was in Nicole Ashoff's book The New Prophets of Capital. The idea is that, not only do "good" capitalists and employers lay cover fire for bad ones - where they represent the golden child we can consistently point to - they actually rely on systems of exploitation inherent to capitalism.

One of these is the concept of monopsony. An easy way to think of this is to think about a bunch of small or midsize coffee shops that pay their baristas a bad wage. Then you have a much larger coffee chain open up that pays slightly higher, even gives benefits. What that large coffee shop is doing is controlling the labor market by becoming monopsonistic. You're not going to quit and go work at the shittier coffee shops, you're going to have a hard time unionizing or demanding more workplace freedom etc. We don't have to think that hard this is what Starbucks and a whole host of other sector companies do. Not every employer could be a "good" employer or the system would empower workers who could simply go to a competitor if they didn't like their working conditions or couldn't organize etc.

So what Kessler is doing, whether intentional or not, is presenting people like Curtis as an obstacle in preventing the sorts of exploitation that happens to other people she profiles, like Kristy who worked for the online, Amazon funded Mechanical Turk or Terrance who got caught up in the pyramid scheme reeking Samaschool. She'll write scathingly of some of Uber's lobbying efforts but then neglect to make the connection that some of these gig companies that "work", companies like Managed by Q, exist exactly because they can ride the coat tales of those exact lobbying efforts. What is emphatically missing from the whole of Gigged is a radical reassessment of the entire system.

The conclusion of Gigged is also outright dastardly. Because Kessler has believed she's simply peeled back the curtain on a complicated phenomenon, she too believes that the solution is some complicated mixture we haven't quite found the recipe for at the center of everything. To do so, she reimagines the tumultuous history of the industrial revolution as a sort of parallel for today:

"It took another half century or so for the labor movement**, in partnership with government and private industry, to form things like a standard ten-hour day, state laws regulating child labor, and requirements for worker safety".

This view suggests the exploitation of the time were almost accidental; just an inevitable hiccup when developing complex manufacturing systems rather than inherent and intentionally developed features of the systems themselves. This also suggests these problems were overcome through out of the box, administrative problem solving as opposed to the violent struggle the government, labor, and private industry engaged in. Here is historian Howard Zinn talking about one such....uh...partnership... in Ludlow: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/td...

Storytelling is important, but if we're going to use it to make a broader point about the unacceptability of things like entrenched poverty or rampant inequality, we need to be as Michael Brooks once said; "kind to people and ruthless to systems". A great example of storytelling paired with a radical vision is Tim Faust's Health Justice Now. Faust uses first-hand stories about people caught up in the egregious American healthcare system. Many of these stories are heartbreaking, but Faust uses them to portray the unacceptability of the world we live in. He then brilliantly articulates a world in which we remove the profit motive driving a lot of the issues explored in the book. Faust discusses single-payer healthcare and an eventual move to not-for-profit pharma companies and he has a clear call to action on how to get there; activism, class struggle etc.

Gigged does have an important story to tell. Kessler has been writing about this for a long time and the ascendancy of the gig economy will have ramifications for a long time. It's an important read, but it's equally important to be critical of anything that seems so comfortable with preserving the status quo.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a well done and fairly up to date look at the phenomena associated with the “gig” or “sharing” economy, a set of developments in the organization of work that are turning individual people into individual independent contractors rather than more traditional employers. This model has become popularized by such firms as Uber and AirBnB although it has been around for a much longer time, especially since the fallout from the waves of mergers and acquisitions that hit the US economies in the 1980s and 1990s and left lots of people out of work as a result.

Whenever a development like the gig economy hits public attention there is a tremendous temptation to either 1) oversimplify and hype it so that the startups pushing it can attract investors and employees stock options; or 2) focus on the dark economic motivations for putting all the human resource costs, including expenses for health care, saving, and retirement, and the backs of employees generally not prepared at present to handle such costs. This makes for a literature of extremes with more balanced approaches being both too boring and also TLDNR (too long did not read - as my kids will inform me while maliciously eye rolling me).

For the gig economy, there is a real need to bring the good and the bad together and see how they can potentially fit - if that is even possible. With the dismantling of post-WW2 corporate America and the end of the “Organization Man”, it is clear that the traditional vision of a high paying upwardly mobile white collar professional career was an anomaly at best and a severe distortion at worst. Remember all those Springsteen songs? At the same time, it does not take a lot to think hard about a firm like Uber and wonder how heaven is going to descend on drivers of cars for hire. Wage theft is a tried and true American tradition in many sectors and it is not difficult to see who is about to get screwed as the business model unfolds. This is a different issue than whether this is a “good” or “bad” development. I know how the arguments go on this, but it is clear to me that there are many in the economy who need extra earnings and a bigger cash flow and lack the resources and skills needed to demand it at will from the economy. What is a person to do if they need the money? In any event, how this all sorts out is much more complicated than one is likely to find in short internet technology columns or the sales pitches of either new startups or social action groups.

Sarah Kessler is a journalist who has produced a rare product - a smart, thoughtful, well-written, and balanced treatment of the gig economy. I hope she writes other books, although this one took her some time to work through. To me, the secret of how “Gigged” is constructed is in its use of ongoing case studies, each focusing on different types of individuals and how the gig economy can help or hinder each.. Of course the individuals are all different and circumstances differ, but she provides a fascinating look at the gig economy from the perspective of different types of works as well as different types of business owners. In between, she actually explains how the start-ups work and clarifies what different it makes if a business maintains a contractor model or else shifts to an employee based model (with its increased expenses for pay, benefits, and work processes).

Recent evidence from varied sources suggests that the growth of contingent employment has moderated in the past decade and that the gig economy is not going to take over the world. This suggests to me that when large numbers of people have to work under these models, then the costs and benefits become much clearer, people start making choices based on their experiences rather than on hype, and even the potential for reasonable regulation raises its head.

This is a fine book for someone interested in these aspects of how the digital workplace is beginning to change the rest of the economy.

[Chris Esposo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gigged is a tech-journalists tour of the the “gig economy” mostly from a “neutral” standpoint. Recently, there has been a spat of books that look into the “dark side” that web 2.0, and social-apps have had in our society. These include “Weapons of Math Destruction”, “Automatic Inequality”, and “Algorithms of Oppression” to name just 3 that have been published since 2016. There’s probably at least a dozen others that are more specific towards a domain-area like election-hacking, ‘fake news’, cyber-warfare, and “surveillance capitalism”, and another half a dozen books on gig-apps themselves, like Uber, Airbnb etc, and still probably another dozen on the “future of work” in general.

Gigged primarily follows 4 - 5 main threads, a woman who used Amazon’s mechanical turk to supplement her husband's income during times of difficulty in their work-life, the founding-team for “Managed by Q” a platform for office building janitorial staff, the founder of “Samaschool” a bootcamp that focused on “up-skilling” residents of Dumas, Arkansas to work on platforms like Upwork and Taskrabbit, a man trying to unionize Uber driver (and sue Uber), and a several other strings of stories in between.

It’s difficult to discern whether the author’s lack of normative positions on the nature of these companies and their effect on society was due to her closeness to the people working in them being a tech-journalist, or if it was by design. Either way, because of this feature, this book offers a different set narrative from something like “Weapons of Math Destruction” which sought to uproot as much of the negative aspects of the phenomenon as possible in a 6 - 7 hour reading time-frame.

In fact, most of the stories have some aspects of a “happy” or “positive” ending to them. The mechanical turker goes back to school to become a labor lawyer. Managed by Q survives to become a (so far) feasible company, who’s leadership (apparently) making decisions to benefit their cleaners, and not their bottom line. Although the man who sues Uber fails, and fails at making a rival to Uber, he ends up “inspired” by Donald Trump, and is now seeking to buy lots of real-estate and has recently bought a non-air bed mattress to sleep on.

The author does a good job outlining the mechanics and issues with many of these platforms like Upwork, where there’s a clear bifurcation between two broad categories of jobs, those that are highly skilled and command a lot of lucre, and those that are extremely menial and don’t offer enough pay to entice (or support) displaced American workers, and are often filled by overseas laborers. Likewise, she did a good job outlining some of the growing pains of Uber from 2015 - recent present, as well as the issues that plague gig-work in general.

Many of these concerns have been highlighted in recent years, and some are even issues that exist in more traditional retail work, like weekly-schedule optimizations that force workers to put in a very late shift and open simultaneously, often affording not more than a few hours of sleep for the worker in between.

The author does not forward many (if any) solutions to these issues, but to say that whatever the solution to our job plight might be, it will not be to “go back” to the pre-platform days. She believes that though imperfect, the platforms offer some genuine functional value to gig-workers and that this technology will be an integral part of work-solutioning for the future.

The book is not bad, it’s narrative neutrality is almost academic, except with nowhere near as much detail (or dryness) characteristic of a monograph on a topic like the one covered in this book. As a summary it’s a definite recommendation as introductory reading. For details, it is not. I’d definitely recommend this as ancillary reading on a course for future labor policy and/or the ethics of algorithms, possible a user-experience design course as well.

[Atila Iamarino · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Sarah Kessler passa por várias novas categorias de trabalhos, os gigs, que aqui em São Paulo seria algo entre um emprego, um job ou "fazer um corre". As relações de trabalho com novos aplicativos que são os Uber de X. Ela faz essa descrição contando um pouco sobre a origem do Uber e em seguida acompanha a vida de algumas pessoas que partiram para essas profissões de aplicativo, por vontade própria ou por falta de opção.

O livro é bem neutro sobre o que se passa e discute bastante o lado bom – com flexibilidade, horários próprios e a possibilidade de trabalhar de casa – e o lado ruim desse tipo de trabalho – falta de estabilidade, de benefícios, de licença, etc. Ela retrata como algumas pessoas conseguem fazer um bom dinheiro nesse tipo de mercado (em relação ao que ganhariam no mercado formal), mas ao custo de um esforço pessoal bem fora do comum (que me faz pensar se não teriam a mesma iniciativa ou o mesmo desempenho em outras carreiras). E cobre também os movimentos de revolta ou mudança de condições que aconteceram em alguns dos apps, como o Mechanical Turk e o Uber.

Um pouco distante da realidade do Brasil, mesmo assim uma boa leitura para entender a dinâmica por trás das plataformas.

[Nopadol Rompho · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book although I just misunderstand it. I thought it was all about how we can become a gig worker but this book talked more about much boarder context. If you want to see the boarder context of gigged economy, you will find book helpful.

[Mette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read similar books about understanding modern day poverty and work, I felt this did well at maintaining a journalistic distance rather than claiming "I'm one of them". But it is very focused on some odd characters and it wouldn't be fair to call them representative. Interesting to read about Uber and its influence on this whole sphere of work. I also liked the policy bit.

Notes:
As a group, independent contractors earn more than employees, but this is only true for those with scarce skills eg journalists it graphic designers, while less scarce skills like cleaning earn less.

Gig economy champions are find out touting data that shows that workers like flexibility. But this data doesn't take into account how much workers value this directly when weighed against factors like pay, job security, benefits and safety

The complexity of contractor Vs worker status (different across Europe and each YS state) leaves it open to abuse

Uber drivers get few details before accepting a ride to discourage selective fare taking. This can mean getting short rides that offer very little pay after Uber's commission, or ones going far away with little prospect of a return ride

Uber promoted itself as a way to start a mini business by not advertising post after deductions, including petrol etc, by internally they viewed McDonald's add their biggest competitor for staff

Photo tagging (ie what's in the photo) is a micro-task outsourced by tech companies wanting it to appear automated. But some pictures are graphic, of abuse or terrorism, and come with little warning other than 18+

In many sites, the flexibility is one way - mandating that workers are available a certain number of hours but not guaranteeing those hours.

Often the start ups don't even know how much the independent contractor (middle man) is paying its workers.

Beyond transportation services, many companies found the gig economy model just didn't work. If you're a human-led service like cleaning or waitering, having an unreliable and uncommitted worker base is less than ideal. Your people are your competitive advantage and that means you need to invest in them. Some companies have found success by investing in employees, essentially rejecting the gig model.

Uber has cut fares at various points and argues that "supply and demand" means this benefits drivers. But this is only true if demand (customers) are very responsive to price changes but supply (drivers) aren't. The latter is unlikely in most situations as drivers choose to drive or not depending on fares.

It's a small minority that actually works in the gig with, but it gets lots of media attention, so politicians have cottoned onto that and used it to get attention on wider issues of instability.

Two policy responses to the gig economy were discussed: restructuring benefits and restructuring employment categories. The first involves making more benefits 'portable', ie sticks with the employee even if they move jobs, like NI does. Proposals included changing healthcare or sick leave to portable benefits. The latter involved creating a new "independent worker" category. These plans and ideas have faded in the US, with stakeholders unable to agree on an idea (it done stakeholders conveniently unable to agree)

A UK enjoyment tribunal find Uber drivers to be workers, an in between category of send employed and employee. Some feel this just intensifies the problem, giving employers one more category to exploit or find loopholes in.

In the epilogue she summarises the gig economy well: "the tremendous hours of silicon valley and the disappointing reality that our support systems are not prepared to handle the major changes on the horizon."

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah Kessler’s Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work examines the rise of the so-called “gig” economy and the ramifications for workers. The story is complicated and there have been winners and losers, even among workers themselves.

Some have definitely benefited from the flexibility and stayed afloat financially, while a number of others are barely getting by. Likewise, a number of companies have bad reputations, deservedly or not, for their employment conditions. However, there is an example of a company—Managed by Q—reversing course and classifying their workers as employees and providing decent and benefits while still finding a way to remaining profitable.

When I first started reading this book, I was not entirely sure whether to expect a polemic screed or thoughtful investigation. Fortunately, this book turned out to be latter, illustrating both the good and the bad of the “gig economy.” However, despite highlighting both the good and the bad, I still came away questioning how beneficial the “gig economy” will really be for most workers.

[Harvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book merely states the obvious for anyone (especially millenials) living in the 21st century, with anecdotes to support it. I was expecting more. I was expecting a deeper reflection on what kind of society we want to build, how someone can best prepare himself to thrive in this new paradigm, what other options than day to day survival working shitty jobs one has, etc...

[L]

Depressing but good.

[Jimmy Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent reporting. Unfortunately, she constrains herself to popular cliches about labor economics, though she questions her orthodoxy a few times. Also, she greatly exaggerates in her Chapter 12.8 reference. The abstract: "This article uses various micro data sets to study entrepreneurship.
Consistent with the existence of capital constraints on potential entrepreneurs,
the estimates imply that the probability of self-employment
depends positively upon whether the individual ever received
an inheritance or gift. When directly questioned in interview surveys,
potential entrepreneurs say that raising capital is their principal problem.
Consistent with our theoretical model’s predictions, the selfemployed
report higher levels of job and life satisfaction than employees.
Childhood psychological test scores, however, are not
strongly correlated with later self-employment."

Which she takes to mean that "...in reality, we don't all have the same chance of succeeding if we just believe. What entrepreneurs most have in common is not a special leadership style, flavor of grit, or talent. It is inheritance or other access to startup capital."

[Maciej Nowicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gig economy is about the use of assets in different ways. I can give two quick examples of that. Think about Uber which allows people to turn their private car into a temporary taxi. The common business model for a taxi is quite different. It used to be that taxi had to be a registered vehicle, you have to pay to get the license to become a taxi driver, buy insurance and so on. Now, the technology which has allowed cars to become taxis is part of what explains why people are temporarily becoming taxi drivers. The second thing which is happening around the world is Airbnb which allows your house to temporarily become a hotel room. Then it allows you to become, temporarily, a hotel owner. This is a really radical new development and it’s actually great because it means we could have much higher capital efficiency. Instead of all these cars lying idle, now they are turned out to be taxis. And when a house which lies empty because its owner is on holiday could be used as a hotel. This is a fantastic development which helps us in getting a much higher utilisation rate out of our assets and it will increase its efficiency greatly.

Next, the gig economy allows everybody to be their own boss and play by their own rules. It is an economy where you have apps that give out jobs like Uber or Airbnb. Workers are changed into freelancers and generally speaking it’s a shift from full-time employment, whether that could be contract workers or temp workers or other things that aren’t traditional jobs. Now it’s much easier to hire a freelancer than it’s ever been before. There are online platforms offering easy ways to search for workers. You can keep track of these people, moreover, if you hire a freelancer you can also watch a video of all the hours that they were working for you on their desktop to make sure that they didn’t do something different while they were supposed to be working for you.

We all know that flexible works have some perks. Some people become more entrepreneurial, they become more creative than in the traditional office. We also know that these jobs, generally, don’t come with sick leave, vacation leave or retirement benefits, healthcare or any other workplace supports. And for many doing this kind of work leaves... (if you like to read my full review please visit my blog https://leadersarereaders.blog/gigged...)

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a factual background, I must state that I left a full-time job in the first months of 1998 and became a player in the gig economy. However, I spent a year researching and saving for the move and when I left I had over $10,000 in work lined up and 11 days of vacation pay coming to me. I was successful in my endeavors until I was persuaded to take another full-time job several years later. Therefore, I have some experience in working and not knowing precisely what I would be doing in three months, relying on my skills and contacts to find the next gig.
If there is a theme to this book, it is that companies are using the concept of “independent contractor” as a tactic to avoid paying decent wages and benefits. Some of the companies that have been portrayed as darlings of the gig economy where people can work their own hours are depicted as exploitative. When all of their expenses are considered, many of the people working for companies like Uber are in fact making less than the legal minimum wage.
When you are operating in the gig economy, you only get paid when you work, there are no paid vacation or sick days, no health benefits and Kessler goes to great lengths to explain how many companies are engaged in a new form of exploitation of workers. The only fringe benefits available to most people are those of little value.
The advent of the internet has led to the dispersion of digital work around the globe. Simple tasks that pay only a few cents are eagerly snapped up by people in other countries, where such a wage has greater meaning. This also leads to a drop in the wage rate, as there is much more competitive bidding for the jobs.
This book should be read by anybody that is considering entering the gig economy, it will inject a dose of reality into the brain of any person that thinks they can make a decent living doing tasks such as driving for Uber. It is a much harder task than you think it is, even harder than it was in 1998, when I did it.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carefully researched and brilliantly written by the one of the journalists who first reported on the gig economy trend when the term wasn't invented yet, the book shed some much needed light on the sobering reality of working as an independent contractor in this age of smartphones and online platforms. Most of the individuals profiled in the book were eventually disappointed or disillusioned with the lure of "working as your own boss at your own time." Some of the high-flying on-demand platforms, it turned out, were increasingly being used by companies mainly to avoid paying decent wages and benefits while enjoying the advantage of flexible (and interchangeable) manual labor.

In the end, similar to the impacts of smartphone apps, social media, and other online platforms, the lion share of the gig economy's benefits accrue to, besides tech cofounders and VCs, the people who are already equipped with valuable, indispensable skills and credentials. Many others, on the the hand, will continue to face more downward pressure on wages and dwindling job security.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty straightforward rundown of the pros (flexibility, variety) and especially cons (usually no benefits, no security, no stability) of gig jobs, notably Uber but also the bazillions of "uber for...." that mainly constrain costs for employers rather than providing notable benefit to workers.

addresses big picture issues but also follows some specific people who are making it work for them [e.g., a guy with exceptional coding skills] and a few who are struggling.

some pessimistic talk about the future of work toward the end, as many more types of work become automatable. i'm probably getting out in time before the online education trend evicts most life-action faculty members, but it's disconcerting to think about for instance the massive number of truck drivers facing the onslaught of driverless cars.

[Kim Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author was great to listen to and packed a lot of information into a relatively short, but easy to read book. I chose this book because I take part in occasional "gigs" and wanted to know if that is the way it will be for the rest of my working days. It seems like it could be but it has a long way to go. She delves into many different apps and historical apps as well that didn't quite make the cut. She compares this to worker protections that you give up when you "become your own boss." This persuaded me to re-think doing gigs or only complete easier, more lucrative gigs and investigate new apps. I would like to read more from this author. She is passionate about her research and experience. She went into great detail. I will have to read again to grasp more of the information. Some was dated, but that's to be expected in most books.

[David Albán · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy to approach, people-focused look into the "gig economy".

First heard of this book through the Data & Society podcast and the result did not disappoint. A really good starting point to understand how labor is changing amidst all the tech driven hype.

Appreciated the perspective that new organizations between labor, government and private industry will take decades to respond to this change wirh an appropriate social change. Hope this report can serve as a starting point for any looking to expedite this change and support hard working people, providing everyone with economic stability, livable wages, and a strong social safety net amidst the technological changes to come.

[Jack Oughton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, accessible insight into the newly emerging gig economy. Neither too critical nor too praiseworthy, Sarah's talks with various people act as human-led case studies into people doing well and badly in this temp work reality. Quite Uber centric, as you might expect - but with lots of titillating insights into other businesses, both failed and successful. As you may expect, our newly emerging economy will be a blessing or a curse, depending largely on your background and the skillset you possess.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book on the evolving nature of work Heavily researched and noted. Kessler has done her work depicting the gig economy as not all it's cracked up to be. There is an abundance of facts to dispute the value of this type of work The author draws the reader back to when Unions were beginning to form and points to the salient fact that workers are not better off wealth wise. It was quite sobering and makes me want to understand and read more about where work is headed.

[Jean-Philippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you thought that the "gig economy" was only for the highly mediated young geek living in Bali, think again, there is much more to the "gig economy" than meets the eye starting with its workers.

This tour of the horizon is good and broad. The book isn't super engaging even though we follow a few gig workers over time in their quest for a decent life, but the depicted situation seems very well documented - it's more a report than an essay and, honestly I liked it like that.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watching how our economy and domestic workforce will evolve inclusive of the continuing growth of "Gig Workers" is something state legislatures are now taking a close look at how it will continue to change how we look at this for staffing needs. For those graduating in 2019 and 2020, more and more new potential employees are starting the career as gigsters. This will only become a stronger labor influence in the years ahead.

[Dav · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The various perspectives of the author’s subjects are super interesting, and the overarching concern for security / financial stability from a worker’s standpoint is something that I see around me a lot. This is more a human story sprinkled with various reflections on this 'new' (or newly labelled haha) economic system, I guess, so for me it's a good easy read on a subject that will continue to rise up through the future.

[Shagufta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this read by @sarahfkessler exploring the gig economy, the future of work and how for most people, the road to better work is not through apps. This was thoughtful and interesting, full of stories and very engaging, and it helped me put into context some of the other reading and learning I’ve been doing this year about the future of work. Stay tuned for a blog post soon!

[Kingsley O. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book attempts to isolate how exactly technology might be changing how we work globally. But there are a couple of discussion strands. It’s already decentralized the job market (e.g. where’s home or what do we do to build a company). In spite of, anything else under-the-hood that technology might fix?

[Leanne Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting examples, especially for how the gig economy doesn't help low-skilled workers without much technology access. I think elected officials have to be more on-top of how companies do business in their communities instead of responding after-the-fact.

Universal health care would definitely help gig workers and some sort of matching fund for retirement.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the promises and failures of the gig economy, mainly told through a few people working at Uber, Managed by Q, and a non profit focused on helping folks get jobs in the new economy. A really human look at the VC darling childs and how they continued to perpetuate some inequalities.

[Mike Stolfi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a complicated issue, & she did a good job covering many facets of it.

Basically, if you've got mad tech skills you'll be paid handsomely for your efforts much of which will be applied to making your input obsolete.

If you don't, welcome to techno-serfdom. . .

[Jeainny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A startling look into the employment trends in the modern gig economy that began with Uber’s hire model. Kessler shows well the realities behind contractor-based hiring and shows the many holes in considering employees as a cost rather than as an asset.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great compendium of many of the ways that work is changing. Makes you think hard about the safety net, without lecturing about it. Enjoyable and thought-provoking.