In the early 20th century,
for a city dweller in India, definition of a nice life usually meant, “He got a
government job, and lived happily ever after!” Such a person studied until a
certain age, usually until graduation, and then looked for a job. A good job
usually meant working for the government, or for a reputed public or private
company. Once hired people would work with the same employer all their life and
retire with savings in their Provident Fund, and possibly a life-long pension.
In the late 20th century
definition of a great job became, “She got a job with an MNC and lived happily
ever after!” The notion of ‘first learn, then work’ got challenged and to
succeed in your career you constantly needed retraining. This retraining was mostly
provided by the employer in the form of seminars, conferences and executive
courses. Few people also took sabbaticals. People now changed jobs a few times
in their career.
The answer to ‘What is a
job?’ is changing again. Earlier we thought of a job as a service a person is
capable of providing for which there are takers who are willing to pay a
salary. Definition of a job has now become ‘your ability to add value’ to an
undertaking. Say some entrepreneurs plan to start an IT company that will service
the banks and you have expert knowledge of banking. You can offer your
knowledge to this group to help improve their product. Your expert knowledge,
talent, skill, or experience is the value you bring to the table for which you
get compensated. Today compensation can be in the form of salary, retainer,
fee, bonus, profit-sharing or shares.
To succeed in today’s
economy, from being a passive job seeker, you have to learn to ‘invent’ a job
for yourself, nicely packaging and marketing the ‘value’ you can add, 'value'
being your experience, knowledge, talent, or skill.
The good news is that if you
have something of value to offer you can now plug yourself into a bigger pool
of demand, even into the global economy, sitting right where you are. A
multitude of platforms or online marketplaces has emerged where you can offer
your knowledge, skill, or talent and get rewarded.
If you make exquisite
handmade things you can now sell them globally on the online marketplace Etsy
- https://www.etsy.com If you are a good artist or designer you can now get work, even
from abroad on https://www.fiverr.com If you are good at coding you can offer your talent to
international clients on https://www.upwork.com If you enjoy making films and are good at it, you can get
freelance work on http://90seconds.co.uk
These are just a few
examples, there are several other platforms that consolidate the fragmented
demand for a product or service, even an esoteric one. They bring together
buyers and sellers, ease the transaction process and put checks in place.
Negotiations and payments are made online and buyers and sellers can rate each
other. Rating puts their reputation at stake and if the buyer’s reputation gets
tarnished no seller will sell to that buyer and vice-versa.
The point here is that nature
of work and its economics is changing. This freelance, on-demand economy
is being called the 'gig' economy. The word 'gig' as used in this context has
been borrowed from the music industry where artists are not employed full-time
but live from one performance (gig) to another. This is also being called ‘uberisation
of work’ thanks to the success of the company Uber that has allowed anyone with
a car and a driving license to become a freelance driver.
Earlier self-employed
individuals and micro-enterprises could only cater to the local demand because
they didn't have funds to market their offering. They relied on word-of-mouth
publicity and middlemen. There was information asymmetry because the seller
(individuals and micro-enterprises) didn't know the true worth of their
offering and the middleman could exploit this information asymmetry. Today
sellers, however small, can plug into the market via the online aggregators and
offer their skill or talent globally, for a negotiated price.
To succeed in the gig economy
you have to become very good at what you do because when you tap into the
global market you also face tough competition.
The gig economy offers
upsides like flexibility, autonomy, creative expression and a chance to acquire
mastery in what you love doing. And, autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the
three drivers of intrinsic motivation. The gig economy thus offers you a chance
be an intrinsically motivated participant in the emerging global economic
milieu and live an exuberant life.
However, for a fair
assessment, you should also be aware of the downsides of the gig economy –
you thrive only if you are really good at what you do, you face
volatility in income, it becomes difficult to plan the future because of
uncertainty in inflow of funds, bank loans may be difficult to come by as banks
require documents like a salary proof, there no job security, no mandatory
savings and no pension.
If the downsides have
dampened your enthusiasm for the gig economy, do consider that before the
industrial revolution, that is just around 200 years back, before the era of mass
production, the main avenues of employment were microenterprises and
self-employment (in fact, in India, unorganised sector still accounts for over
90% of employment). Job security is a fairly new concept and unavailable to
most people in economies where the unorganised sector dominates employment.
Instead of being afraid of the on-demand, freelance economy, focus on
cultivating attributes that will enable you to thrive, viz deep knowledge,
creativity, innovation, and mastery.
Most people ‘work to live’
and some ‘live to work’. We tell ourselves, “I will first work, make some money
and then do the stuff I really enjoy doing.” The gig economy offers you an
opportunity to ‘live and work’ – do what you enjoy doing and also make money
doing so!
Go ahead, measure your risk
appetite and figure out if there is a life for you in the gig economy.
