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The Gig Economy
“Among the upper class or college-educated,” our pollsters report, “the impacts felt are mostly the lack of a pay raise (40 percent) or the acquisition of more responsibilities at work without more compensation (35 percent).” As Christopher Hitchens replied the other day when I asked about the dress code for his Saturday night inauguration party: “Come as you were.”
The managers of all these disintegrating companies tend to be mesmerized by the notion that everyone can now be hired cheap—that everyone is slave labor. Which, for them, should be great, right? What they don’t take into account is that the Nut is the Nut. If your Gig with them can’t pay it, you still have to make it—which means you‘ve got all these other Gigs boiling along at the same time.
Doing three things badly is the name of the game. That’s why the Gig Economy is no picnic for the flailing employer either. Every time the boss turns around asking for a key member of staff to join today’s frantically convened cost-cutting strategy meeting the reply comes back, “It’s not Sam’s day to come in and he’s the one working on it. Julia can come, though.” “Julia? What she got to do with it?” “Yeah, well, we’ll have to bring her up to speed.”
With so many part-time people on—and not on—the job, corporate America has started to feel like it’s on a permanent maternity leave. Colleagues are an amorphous, free-floating army of rotating waifs whose voicemails are clogged with plaintive requests from their own offices for missing information. I sometimes wonder what the impact of this will be on, say, patients in hospitals where job reducing is just as rampant as in media, or banking, or retail, or anywhere else. Are we about to see a rash of medical malfunctions as bad as the chronic surge in typographical errors in newspapers that just fired their entire copy desk?
I can think of two possible upsides to the tyranny of Gigocracy, one small and one big.
Small: the overdue demise of the hot-air agencies in the Internet world that have preyed on the budgets of fading big media behemoths. In the last few years, there has been a boom in these talk shops with multiple acronyms whose role has been to advise panicky managements on “how to think about the Internet space.” The trouble is, space is all they’ve been offering to think about. Besides, thinking is the last thing a company hemorrhaging money wants to do.
The new big time-waster I can report is meetings about deals for which neither party wants to pay any money. It’s a bit like one of those romantic comedy plots in which the gold digger pretending to be an heiress is hustling the billionaire who turns out to be a con man. How much you got, pal? is the mantra of the day. Forget the Perrier and the PowerPoints. Put up or shut up.
Big: As noted above, the folks at the bottom of the greasy pole have been living with the anxieties, uncertainties, and indignities of Gigwork (it used to be called piecework) for a long time. Now that people nearer the top are learning firsthand about the wonders of “individual initiative” and “self-reliance,” a little more sympathy—maybe even solidarity—with those the meritocracy dismissed as losers may be in order. Maybe having to trade that first-class cabin for a smaller one without a porthole will alert some of the erstwhile winners to the fact that everyone's in the same boat.
To quote our Daily Beast poll, “The old picture of a hustler is a wizened guy standing on a street corner selling some assortment of unsavory goods. Today’s hustler looks much swankier; with the economy in free fall, the American workplace is changing and now the top tiers are hustling.”
I could go on. But, um, I have this, like, consulting thing to do and, er, this speech I’m supposed to be writing, and, um...
Gotta run!
RELATED: The Daily Beast poll on the rise of the hustling class.
Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown. She has written for numerous publications, including The Times of London, The Spectator, and The Washington Post.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
What an incredibly negative assessment. Leave aside the fact that a well-ordered freelance career can be both intellectually and financially more stimulating than a staff job. The fact that one has more free time, fewer pointless meetings, fewer annoying phone-calls, zero internal politics (diplomacy is far more interesting than in-fighting) and more options are surely reasons enough to embrace "gigocracy". Admittedly, it's far easier to enjoy freelancing when there's decent state provision for health, education and retirement - but even in the US, a well-organised freelancer ought to be able to make do, no? And if, in the process, we get closer to family and community - instead of focusing on a commute to some quasi-society of scheming back-stabbers - so much the better.
Tina,
Your columns are always a welcome addition to my mornings.
Thanks
Great article. As a person just trying to finish a degree, I can say that the low paying jobs are no better. Getting a job at McDonald's full time is hard these days. I asked my father, a staunch republican who was responsible for this miserable economy.
He replied it was the democrats, for encouraging people who couldn't afford homes to take out mortgages. I just want you readers to know the republicans won't let go, won't take blame, and won't stop trying to ruin the country.
Er, well there's something in what Pop says, xbainx. Even Barney Frank is telling people he tried in vain to warn about this folly. If you can't lie brazenly, what's the point of being a politician? As for Tina's point, it is the remorseless nature of unbridled capitalism to cut costs. See Marx on this subject. If these under-employed Ivy Leaguers had been smart, they would have gone into government in the first place. Have you seen their pensions? They're living like kings!
Dear Tina:
What you've written is indeed an accurate reflection of the plight of many at this time.
However, what's needed, and needed actually on a global scale, is I believe less dwelling on the severity of the current economic catastrophe and more focus on how each individual can contribute to a significant recovery. At the height of boom periods, I have seen billionaires behaving agitated and stressed to within an inch of their lives.
The route out of quicksand is not negotiated by flailing and hysteria. Zola's novel L'Argent portrays the Paris stock exchange of his day; the essence of things, the ups, the downs, the irrationality, the life force, the joy the sorrow - c'est tout a fait la meme chose actuellement.
I am loaded up with projects, but they are all of great merit. The February issue of Opera News will contain my profile of Metropolitan Opera Conductor Marco Armiliato. For the next issue of the New York Blade, I'll have an op-ed piece on domestic violence. I did an article on M/Y Romance for Caviar Affair magazine.
Negativity begets negativity; a huge portion of what's going on is psychological, and not a physically measurable thing, like the amount of snow that fell on Saturday night. The whole society needs cognitive therapy, to stop thinking itself further into a downward spiral.
I was 8 years full-time with a major media outlet and have been 15 years freelance, basically with the same company. No politics, no dreadful meetings, no blanket control over my week. I give myself yearly raises which no one has ever balked at - I assume because I'm so cheap minus the health and retirement benefits. I've raised 4 children, attended all their games and school plays. I can't imagine ever again working for an unknown corporate exec swinging away at golf balls while i'm stuck in rush hour day after day after day. You can give it a negative spin, but the truth is: autonomy over your life - priceless.
Tina,
Welcome to the dark side of the Free Agent Nation that was trumpeted so loudly during the last bubble. All of this wouldn't be so bad if there were more more of an infrastructure to support it, such as affordable healthcare options for individuals in the U.S.
I have been working on a portfolio of gigs for several months now. It is indeed stimulating and, on most days, fun. However, I can't tell you what I'll make this year with any degree of certainty because so many of the projects are in flux because of the economy.
The most frightening part of your column -- because it is so true -- is, "The managers of all these disintegrating companies tend to be mesmerized by the notion that everyone can now be hired cheap-that everyone is slave labor." Too many business models are based on getting someone to do something for free or negligible compensation. Writers are expected to serve up words for free in order to build a lucrative speaking business. They are also expected to speak for free in order to sell books or attract eyeballs to their blogs. Round and round it goes.
And so we must all become tireless self-promoters in hopes of retaining some degree of pricing power through reputation.
I agree with Mondobeast. (1) There's a difference between professional freelancers and those who try to make money while looking for "a real job," apparently hanging their head and mumbling apologies for doing so, in Tina's world. (2) Companies often pay larger companies too much money for b.s. work when a professional freelancer or freelance team could do it better, faster. (3) Corporate managers probably often hire companies rather than freelancers because it pads their own resumes, strokes their own egos, provides deeper pockets to sue if something goes bad, and covers their own backsides with the boss to have ten people involved with something one or two focused, competent people could do. Not to mention the fawning and freebies an overstaffed and overpaid group can afford to spend on the person who brings them in. Not in all cases, of course, but I'd wager there are many times when what I'm saying here would be true. Why not analyze that bloat instead, and describe the positives of working with competent freelancers?
To compare freelancers to hustlers is condescending. To the degree we hustle during our day (far different from being a "hustler," with its shady connotations), since when is working hard for a living a bad thing? If more people had hustled in that way, on or off a steady payroll, maybe the economy would be in better shape today.
On maternity leave? I have no idea what you're talking about. Working freelance can be just as full-time as any other job. In fact freelancers often work longer hours, since paid employees may be less willing to work nights or weekends for the same paycheck. (In that way, it's like motherhood...but it's not like a maternity leave, stepping momentarily away from the workforce.)
To portray freelancers as a problem for some "frantically convened" meeting dodges the company's issues with managing people and planning ahead. Most fire-drill meetings don't need to be that way. It's a minor point, but the scenario is presented as if the inability to round up a bunch of people in a panic is a problem with freelancers. I'd suggest the problem is with the person who's frantic.
And I'd suggest while you're coining terms like Gigocracy and Gigwork, you come up with a name for the people you're really talking about-("GigWigs," people who think their better than the work situation they're currently in?) because it ain't professional freelancers you're talking about, here, Tina.
A spot-on reflection of what I see, every day.
It turns out that the illusory emotional benefits of having no single boss are just that. With even a bad boss there's a negotiation process that leaves you some shred of dignity. As a member of the Gig Economy -- no matter what your previous stature -- you are no different than a laborer in a Chinese factory making those designer shoes you used to be able to afford.
And try getting paid. You're stuck in the accounts payable queue, with generally no recognition that you need that check for The Nut.
A sure way to tell when someone is a member: their business address is a residential building, but instead of
Apt 4E they say Suite 4E. Yeah, like we don't get it.
This is the unintended consequence of all the blathering we heard in the 90s about the digital economy creating a wondrous new world where companies could operate without boring old hierarchies, and we'd all be empowered free agents, able to strike an amazing work-life balance while finding appreciative economic audiences for our talents.
A sidebar on this is the growth of FreeLancers Union --http://www.freelancersunion.org/index.html_
Handy hint for any Giglets and Giglettes reading this.
Your describing the transformation I went through with my old industry three recessions ago, in the early 90s.
I had just graduated from college into a field with a flood of applicants, few jobs, little pay, usually no benefits. We graduated from the very best schools, were top in our class. But the industry had changed rapidly and even very senior people were being displaced. My friends and co-workers were depressed, angry, and forged on as if working harder was going to save them by getting to the top of the heap, where hopefully it would be better. It wasn't, really.
I took stock, realized the college education was not enough and relearned a whole skill that took advantage of my knowledge but lifted me above the fray. Most of the others I knew from college never did that and as very talented people, struggle to this day.
I managed to completely reinvent myself and never forgot the lesson that it pays to acknowledge an unfair (it always feels that way) but inevitable change ahead of the pack and *move*.
Barbara Erlichman has been chronicaling these kinds of jolts to the American upper/middle-classes for quite a while. You might want to get her to write something for DB.
Scott,
You forgot to mention your recent commentary for a prestigious newsblog. I'm quite pleased with mine. BTW, when does the Daily Beast mail the checks out, so I can start watching the mail box for mine?
Banjo1,
Clearly you've never worked for the government, or seen the GS scale. Government employees do NOT live like kings or even close to it, and Ronald Reagan did away with the decent pension plan.
I really want to thank you for this piece. I am hoping that a lot of people start to understand what it's like to do freelance and piecework, understand what being an independent contractor (basically my status) is often like, that's it not the pleasant, lucrative gig that everyone thinks it is, and that working at home is not bliss (work is work).
I've worked as a legal transcriptionist for longer than I care to admit. The pay is fixed according to the agency that you "freelance" for, and they get the work according to being the low bidder on a government contract, in many cases. The page rate is paltry and your skills have to be top notch (over 100 wpm dead-accurate typing abilities, excellent grammar, spelling skills and a brain that hopefully works on all cylinders, excellent hearing and voice discernment).I've been over the years, depending on the work I've done, subject to government freezes during bad times via the trickle-down method, where suddenly the edict goes out that, hey, we don't really need all those transcripts of state assembly hearings or NLRB hearings or SEC hearings. It is paycheck to paycheck and less.
This was not my heart's desire in life and at this point, thanks to the economy, I feel there are no other choices but keep plugging away at what I'm doing. At this point, though, I have been doing more recession-proof work (I hope, and the agency I work is pretty sure of this) as in criminal and civil court cases. However, we have not seen a page-rate increase, once again, in eight years (and even eight years the legislature admitted they were just bringing barely up to speed) and so I feel no matter how hard I've worked there is no way to get ahead.
I see lowering wages all around, though, and feel this may be the only way we move ahead. If enough people get down to the level I, and others like me, are at, things will change.
And, yes, I am appalled at the numerous grammatical, spelling and other egregious mistakes that I read in newspapers, books and, yes, on blogs daily. It's painful, but even more painful that print media is satisfied with this status quo -- i.e., they also have no need for someone like me with what I used to be assured that, even lacking a college degree, skills like mine were invaluable and would always be in demand. No, they're not, not in this brave new world that is satisfied with mediocrity.
Wow--that article makes freelancing seem quite risky and undignified, which is the opposite of what I've experienced. My freelance work allows me to be very useful and productive to clients for the project they need, and then to be 'out of there' when it's over. They like what I do and the way I do it, so they treat me well. I'm not hanging my hat on a single job that is either there or gone, depending on my employers' whims. If need be, I can market to new clients to get more work or I can slack off a bit during the summer when my son's out of school. It's perfect for me, and I suspect, for a lot of other people. The idea that a full-time job offers more security in an illusion. Once you understand that, you're a lot more prepared to seize the day.
Tina,
Great column. It's always nice to know I'm not alone. I'm out there hustling many different jobs, both industry and non-industry to make ends meet.
Mike
xbainx, you can NOT absolve Democrats such as Barney Frank
for pressuring banks and regulators to give mortgages to people with no ability to pay them. Whether the Democrats get 40%, or 50%, or 60% of the blame - it is impossible to calculate - they are certainly profoundly guilty, along with the Bush administrations, the bankers, the mortgage brokers, and the stupid/greedy borrowers.
You have nailed it, Tina. I have been living this life for 30 years. That is why I am so resentful of the financial industry that has drained so much off of the economy.
tomfarr, there were no greedy borrowers, although perhaps stupid ones. Arithmetic is barely taught in schools, and percentages is barely understood. People just want a home and security. If you want to lay blame, lay it at the feet of the greedy bankers who bought a sold derivatives on home mortgages. Blame the Administration that did not fund oversight that is mandated by law and regulation. Blame the silly idea that Greenspan expounded that what was good for him and his people was good for the rest of us.
I'd like a steady gig writing for The Daily Beast. How do I go about that? I could start out with a spiffy art on the 'e con oh me,' by definition, a foursome of lobbyists and congressman trying to fig out a way to loosen me from my long gone take home pay.
Or a memoir about Alan Ginsburg - going to Cherry Valley with my story of Adman and Even in the Gar Den ov Edum and how Leslie Aaron Fiedler the literary priest and A.Ginsburg together decided they would do all in their powers to insure I was kept off every stage . . . follow that with funny stories about my friend, Gregory Corso . .
Or some funny 750 word stories about H. Marshall Mcluhan. He was my friend, too. He watched me write my Television Scripture, my spoke en poem for all man kind written down to perform on whirled wide television for all the world's peoples to 'sea' listen to and be a part of all at once.
ahhh the good old days cooking opium in a Saigon suburb for Viet kong regulars down from the north to celebrate the Tet. Those were the good old pre-McLuhan days - black pajamas, red bandanna, beautiful family heirloom ornamental opium pipe, laden with silver. Ought to be able to cough up 750 smokey words on cooking opium.
Or running for president in New Hampshire in 1988 meeting Bar Donna Bush Corleone on the campaign trail and the old switch making it clear she despised me -her husband four years later calling me a "jacklegs jumping up" and every body asking Bush the Elder, the next day, "Whose the jacklegs?"
Type in "jacklegs Jumping Up" in The New York Slimes archive and see what comes up. WHen people of the Bush's ilk despise you, and you call a company on the telephone to see about getting a gig ef be eye gets there first so you don't get hired.
How about 750 sharp words about J. Edgarina the fascist pervert of dirt - if knot the pervert of dirt himself then his descendants - they aren't tapping millions of telephones looking for 9/11 tear-it-up dudes - they are storing terabytes every day so when you apply for a govt. gig they can access your seek writ spoken comments to a trusted friend and based on that telephone conversation, based on when you applied for the gig, a conversation that took place 18 months ago, or years earlier . . you don't get the gig.
How about 750 on a fail safe way to sliminate bureaucracy? Visit youtube/poetprophet I'm in a sour mood today - caught the flu or something
I won't hold my breath waiting for The Daily Beast to offer me a gig I'll hold my breath scrubbing toilets in a hotel for a day's pay through a temp agency
In the country of Mens' souls there is a Ganges
(I didn't write that line, an unknown Korean war poet did. I'd like to write some words about him)
michaelslevinson.com
So true. I'm a recent grad of a highly rated liberal arts university. I am a runner at a law firm by day and freelance writer by night. Is the Daily Beast hiring?
Being a freelancer means you're in business for yourself. You are not precluded from establishing a regular clientelle, being on contract or on retainer to different firms.
So, a smart freelancer is no more just "gig to gig" than is any company that depends on customers with whom it has no contractual relationship to come back.
Lawyers and doctors often work "project to project". So do Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford, for that matter.
A freelancer who is talented and has the business acumen to charge sufficiently for his work is quite capable of having money in the bank and living far less paycheck to paycheck than someone with a "secure" job.
First off, I'm an independent contractor, not a freelance. Freelance implies "free," which I'm surely not. Also, you imply that the freedoms of the Independent Contractor life are illusory, when in fact they are so real that I wake up every morning with a shit-eating grin on my face. I've never had a job where I can pick the work I do, where I can determine the limits of my work day, and where I can pet my cat anytime I want. Lastly, I can learn and apply just about any skills in my field without someone trying to stop me with "not in your job description" nonsense. Oh want a glorious life, if only it lasts.
As many note, freelancers or as in the business world - independent contractors have always been a mainstay of employment but I think for the most interesting segment of the population. Professionals who work in this manner for a serious length of time are the best multitaskers, most adaptable and typically learn their skill better because they must modify the application for each new customer. Also they are the best barometers of the economy and would never make foolish mistakes like purchasing more of a mortgage and taxes than can be afforded.
I and my family earn our living the independent way and we tend to socialize with similars. It also affords flexibility for family issues, ample time for my community service and for lipping off on sites like this. Our organization is successful but we've found the economic environment to be not favorable since probably 2001 when the dot.bomb bubble burst - forcasting the future has been impossible and many assets and investments have not been valued truthfully -especially real estate. Question is how long will it take to unravel and for truth to be revealed.
Good news, I don't need to be paid for my comments. I'm just thankful for the forum.
One more thing; maybe I could afford maternity leave now but when we started, maternity leave was a weekend.
Sorry, this is just tone deaf, and I never thought I'd ever say that about Ms. Tina Brown. Her old haunts publishing and magazine publishing in particular weren't exactly the pillar of labor-friendly fairness now were they? Mondobeast, ChanRobt, you get it 100%...If you are feeling powerlesss, take control. Self employ and stop whining.
The new big time waster is not new. That meeting has been happening since people have tried to build web businesses. It may have stopped for a little while when companies were flush, but every company presents itself as the one with the brand, content, features, etc. that make it be the one that deserves to get paid. Welcome to the Web.
Mondobeast, the answer to your question "Admittedly, it's far easier to enjoy freelancing when there's decent state provision for health, education and retirement -but even in the US, a well-organised freelancer ought to be able to make do, no?"
is... No.
that's why Tina is writing this article.
It's just too expensive to buy health insurance, pay rent and other expenses on an income that may be there one week and not the next. the expenses are steady. the income is not. people don't pay freelancers on time. sometimes it takes several months to get paid.
I've been freelancing for 15 years now. I am surprised how much time I spent soliciting work. Sometimes far more than actually working. And I really dislike sales, which is what I was doing before I went freelance- and now I'm still selling, only I'm selling myself, all day every day. And strings of rejections are demoralizing, on top of the stress from not having enough money to cover the "nut," even when you live very cheaply. If I had been able to stay in one place, rather than moving several times over the last 15 years, i'd probably have a nice comfortable steady freelancing income. But illness and getting married uprooted me and I've started over 4 times. This year, because of the uprooting and the illness (mostly the illness), I'm forced into declaring bankruptcy.
I'm afraid if you haven't lived it for a while, you can't possibly understand how hard it is to make ends meet as a freelancer in a country with no public health insurance and no real hope of retirement (unless you have a corporate full time job). It's just crazy.
And to those defending freelancing as a job, if you're one of the fortunate freelancers with a steady clientele (such as a magazine column), that's a whole different ball of wax than someone who never wanted to be a freelancer being forced into it and having to grab each new piece of work from a new client.
Thank you.
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