The Digital Gig Economy Can Help A Lot Of People. It Can Also Feel Like A Trap

By Faith Cummings


Between college, internships, part-time jobs, student cash advances, and, y’know, actually joining the workforce where people expect you to have experience sort in attempt to land an entry-level role, it might feel like the factors standing between several young people and their dream jobs are all nevertheless insurmountable. And seeming inevitabilities like financial range cuts and poor healthcare advantages have led several young people to establish “layoff funds,” survive with their parents for longer, and seemingly put their lives on hold before they even begin.


These are just some of the stressors leading so several millennials into the freelance game. A 2017 measure by Upwork and the Freelancers Union announced that almost half of millennials are completing contract work. Platforms like Uber, TaskRabbit, and numerous others have also given rise to a digitized gig economy, wherein freelancers and full-time staff alike can make added money in their side-hours with the simple tap of an app.


However all iterations of labor come with a price, and it’s becoming more and more apparent that the advantages people reap from the accessibility of those platforms are adding up to a hefty price for those who do the lion’s share of the work to keep them running.


In Hustle and Gig, sociologist Alexandrea Ravenelle dives deep into the gig economy and why it’s affecting those who work in it and society as a whole. For the book, which hit bookshelves March 12, she interviewed 80 workers about their triumphs, losses, frustrations, and everything in-between for one of the most eye-opening looks into an ever-growing sector of the economy that so several consumers right now take for granted.


Ravenelle talked with MTV News about the unseen dangers of the gig economy, why it could feel inescapable to those who pick up work through app-enabled gigs, and what that insinuates for young people attempting to create both living plus a life in 2019.


MTV News: Both the gig economy and freelance work are becoming more prevalent for millennials, and will probably be the same or perhaps bigger for generation Z to follow. Why did you embark on putting the book with each other, and by compiling all these stories?


Alexandrea Ravenelle: My last real job was right before the Fantastic Recession began [in 2008]. I was working in PR and then I got laid off, so I was then going to do some consulting work on my own. I was already doing some part-time adjunct teaching so I thought, “Oh I might would make a career of this.” I thought it could be fine, yet it was getting overwhelming — it was a lot of work and also a lot of administrative stuff. We would hire workers off of Craigslist and I had some questionable situations. And then I seen a subway ad for TaskRabbit and I thought, it was an entrepreneur like myself hiring other entrepreneurs. And then I began talking to one of the TaskRabbits that I had — we had been working with each other for a while — and what he informed me … made me realize there’s something else going on in the gig economy besides entrepreneurship and each person having the chance to be their own boss.


MTV News: I’ve heard more terrifying stories from people who’ve used services like TaskRabbit and Uber, yet you rarely hear about the circumstances from the people who take jobs in the gig economy. What was your reaction to learning about these stories?


AR: I was blown away. I did not expect to hear these stories at all. Each person is usually nervous. As soon as people use Uber, they think, “Has the driver been background checked?” There was a story that came out this week about someone who was sentenced for raping a unconscious passenger. Yet at least once you’re the client, you know the person allocating you a service has had a background check. They’ve been fingerprinted. Their photograph has been taken. If you’re the driver, you know nothing about the passenger and there’s no protection which is protecting you from that passenger. It’s the same thing with TaskRabbit, which provides all these tasks and services and these workers know nothing about who they’re working for. It’s very easy to establish fake accounts. You don’t even need to get to the point of a burner phone. You could have countless accounts and also you could use gift cards.


The workers just be being very susceptible. There were some things workers were exposed to that I didn’t expect to happen. Workers who mentioned they were invited to participate in threesomes. There’s an inconceivable level of risk — financial, physical, sexual. And although they just keep working because several feel like they don’t have any choice. [Editor’s note: MTV News reached out to both Uber and TaskRabbit for comment on their contractor safety policies.]  


MTV News: this seems so pertinent right now once you think about how other generations have vilified millennials as being “lazy and entitled.” There’s this idea that we don’t wish to work and that we have these very grandiose thoughts about our careers, which is why we’re going into entrepreneurship. However there’s also the contrasting reality that so several of us are being laid off from our jobs. What would you mention to people who perhaps aren’t understanding the gravity of this?


AR: The majority of the people I interview in the book are millennials and that’s because we know millennials often graduated college right once the Excellent Recession was ongoing and after. So, they’ve been hit with high levels of unemployment, high levels of student loans, and high levels of credit card debt. However the crisis affected each person. In the latest Federal Reserve Study of Economic Decision Making lose) for young people ages 18 – 29, gig work was the most typical source of revenue. The Lose survey says that about three in 10 Residents of the United States are actually making cash in the gig economy. Not all of that is platform-based like Uber or TaskRabbit. Some of it may be babysitting or mowing the lawn for an added $20 or $50. Although we’re seeing an enormous movement of people who aren’t making enough in their full-time jobs or who don’t have a sufficient, full-time job, so they require to supplement their salary as the cost of living is rising and each person has debt, so this becomes the only option.


MTV News: What do you know is the root cause of the gig economy?


AR: The period of prosperity that we had after World War II was short-lived in society. We seen a reduce in inequality and an increase in equality, yet we had a few problems. We didn’t have full equality and rights for girls and ethnic and racial minorities. Nevertheless we saw that there were beginnings for more of an equal society economically. Nevertheless starting in the 1970s and 1980s, we began to be able to see this rise of neoliberalism. We began to be able to see more of the message that people need to take responsibility for themselves and that people need to work hard. We saw a outsourcing of jobs to the point that for several millennials, they probably saw their parents being laid off at least once or perhaps more than that.


We’re seeing a sort of return to a early industrial age, once we had the robber barons who are building a lot of cash and then we have each person else. [Now,] we’re ending up with these two tiers of workers — the individuals who are working on demand and the people who are doing the demanding. We’re seeing the gig economy as a move forward to the past. It’s app-enabled, although this disruption is nothing new. Because it’s technology-driven, no one would assume that these industries could still be antiquated in such a fundamental way.


I think segment of the problem is because these organizations describe themselves as technology corporations, which gives you group kind of this imprinter of being mystical, different, and cutting-edge. The argument is, “We need have the ability to lose workers, move rapidly, and disrupt." As a result, people don’t question it the same way.


MTV News: Some people who are a segment of the gig economy might not directly have other means to create make some cash. What are your thoughts on the necessity of finding gig work, as soon as balanced with the inequities in the space?


AR: The gig economy is fulfilling a real need in society. Salaries are stagnant and people often turn to gig work right after they’ve been unemployed for a long period of time or once they feel like they don’t have any other choices. In the book, I divide the workers into three categories: Strugglers, Strivers, And successfulness Stories. And certainly, the Success Stories are able to have Airbnb empires, they’re able to hire people, and so they make six figures. There aren’t a lot of these and most of what they’re doing is illegal, nevertheless they’re able to be successful. There really are the Strivers that need to supplement their stagnant salaries. And there really are the Strugglers who are some days undocumented or long-term unemployed. In several situations, they are older individuals, or they’re recent college grads who don’t have any other options. The gig economy fills a need, and regulation isn't the response to everything, nevertheless we do require some regulation to make sure workers are being protected and to create ensure folks are not being exploited. In this work, you are very much outdoor all of these workplace protections.


The only other thing I would mention about workers turning to these jobs out of desperation is that they do run the risk of getting stuck in the gig economy. There really are individuals I interviewed back in 2015 who I’m following up with right now and they’re still working in the gig economy. Piece of it is that there’s an addictive component to it. We know that our phones are addictive, so add in the possibility of making cash. It also becomes hard to get out of it, right after you’ve been working in the gig economy for a while.


And several workers experience a sense of shame about what they do. Even in case you did have companions that were doing this, they may lie to you about it. One woman I interviewed does lie to her companions. She tells them she’s temping at a law firm as an alternative opposed to cleaning someone’s home through TaskRabbit because there’s something about working on these platforms that feels embarrassing to people.


MTV News: What do you know is going to happen with the gig economy over the next five to ten years?


AR: The gig economy is going to continue to grow. I don’t visualize our society becoming much more focused on equality; historically we haven’t really been there. Now, a lot of those gig economy organizations are relying on venture capital cash. They use the venture capital for both client and worker acquisition, so they’re subsidizing a lot of the rides and, at least in the starting, they’re paying workers’ bonuses, getting them on the platform, and then they’re burning cash very rapidly. I think what we’ll visualize is fewer platforms, nevertheless those platforms will become much more powerful. So, in case you aren’t on a certain platform, it could be nearly impossible for you to get any part-time work.


This interview has been edited and condensed.