There has been a lot written lately of the “Gig Economy” – the notion that, in the future of earning a living, there will no longer be jobs, just work. It’s an earnings environment where the supply and demand for skillsets are contracted between those that have a need and those who can fulfill that need.
This is not to be confused with contractors or consultants who have traditional firms with all the trappings of being a formal business. Certainly, it can be argued that such firms survive by winning one engagement after another – but they also have the overhead that makes them formal business as we recognize them such as; an office, employees, insurances, and other obligations that distract from their monetizing as much of their efforts as possible while keeping overhead at a minimum.
Traditional firms also have something that is largely absent from those working in the gig economy – a fixed work schedule. Sure, when they land a gig, they have to meet deliverables and deadline requirements. But in the gig-economy, the when, how – even where – can be largely discretionary.
The gig economy has been around for some time – but was largely the domain of those with talents in the arts; musicians, artists, writers, photographers, and such. These people were creative when they felt creative (it’s darn near impossible to “force” creativity) and were hired by those who wanted the use of their talent or wanted to purchase what they had created.
Such engagements might be short-term with the reward not being guaranteed, such as a street musician playing in a market square for the casual offerings of the passers-by. Or they might be long-term, such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which took Michelangelo four years to complete. Or a near infinite number of points in between.
But, the introduction of technology (the internet, in specific) and the maturity of social platforms for building awareness and facilitating conversations, has resulted in the exponential growth of transactions (in value and quantity) across a spectrum of economic activity – now including the work of programmers, help-desks and customer service, career advisors, consulting services, and providers of office and home services – such that “gigs” can be recognized as an economy in its own right.
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Continue reading the article on the Opex Society website:
https://opexsociety.org/body-of-knowledge/gig-economy-no-jobs-just-work/
