Gigged Read online

  knolling

  labor and

  marketplace

  mentors

  New York City office

  operator assemblies

  operators (frontline workers)

  origin and theory of

  positive touchpoints

  subcontractors and

  TechCrunch Disrupt 2017 and

  worker benefits

  worker earnings

  worker equity packages

  See also Knox, Anthony; Rahmanian, Saman; Schwartz, Emma; Teran, Dan

  Manjoo, Farhad

  Mas, Alexandre

  McDonald’s

  Mechanical Turk (Amazon’s crowdsourcing marketplace)

  crowd workers

  Dynamo (crowdworker action website)

  “good work” tasks

  Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs)

  purpose of

  Turker Nation (online forum)

  Turkopticon

  worker income

  See also Milland, Kristy

  Medicare

  Mehta, Apoorva

  Milland, Kristy

  millennial generation

  minimum wage

  Arkansas

  Facebook and

  Managed by Q and

  Mechanical Turk and

  New York State

  tipped work and

  Uber and

  United Kingdom

  Upwork and

  Mishel, Lawrence

  Munchery (restaurant delivery service)

  Murray, Charles

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  National Domestic Workers Alliance

  National Employment Law Project (NELP)

  National Labor Relations Board

  Nestlé

  New America Foundation

  New Deal

  New York Taxi Workers Alliance

  New York Times

  New York Times Magazine

  Nixon, Richard

  Obama, Barack

  oDesk (freelance marketplace). See also Upwork

  O’Grady, Frances

  Pallais, Amanda

  pedicabs

  Peers.org (sharing economy support)

  pensions. See also retirement security

  Perez, Thomas

  Pollack, Ethan

  Postmates (courier delivery service)

  poverty

  Prehype (startup accelerator)

  Quartz (business news website)

  QuickTrip

  racism

  Reich, Robert

  remote talent workers

  retirement security

  401(k)

  contingent workers and

  decline in

  economics and

  Honest Dollar (independent worker retirement savings)

  Managed by Q and

  Peers.org (sharing-economy support)

  pensions

  portable benefit programs

  Social Security

  traditional employees and

  ride-hailing services

  A-Ryde

  income of drivers

  Juno

  platform cooperativism and

  tips and

  See also Lyft; Uber

  Rolf, David

  Salehi, Niloufar

  Samaschool. See also Davenport, Terrence; Foster, Gary; Green, Shakira; Logan, Kristen

  Samasource

  Schneider, Nathan

  Scholz, Trebor

  Schwartz, Emma (Managed by Q employee)

  Schwarzenegger, Arnold

  Screen Actors Guild

  self-driving cars

  Shea, Katie

  Shieber, Jon

  Shyp (shipping service)

  sick days

  Silberman, Six

  Snapchat

  So Lo Mo (social, local, mobile)

  Social Security

  SpaceX

  Sprig (restaurant delivery service)

  Starbucks

  Stern, Andy

  Stocksy (stock photo cooperative)

  subcontractors

  Arise and

  earnings

  Managed by Q and

  Silicon Valley and

  Sundararajan, Arun

  Sweet, Julie

  SXSW (South by Southwest)

  Taft-Hartley Act

  Take Wonolo (staffing agency)

  Target

  TaskRabbit (odd job marketplace)

  taxi industry

  EU regulation and

  New York Taxi Workers Alliance

  tips and

  Uber and

  US statistics

  See also Lyft; ride-hailing services; Uber

  TechCrunch (blog)

  TechCrunch Disrupt

  temp workers and agencies

  early history of

  earnings

  freelancers versus

  injury rate

  Kelly Services (“Kelly Girls”)

  Manpower

  permanent employees versus

  Silicon Valley and

  “temp worker” as a category

  US statistics

  work satisfaction

  Teran, Dan

  Tischen (labor marketplace)

  Ton, Zeynep

  Trader Joe’s

  trucking industry

  Trudeau, Kevin

  Trump, Donald

  Try Caviar (food delivery service)

  Turker Nation (online forum)

  Turkopticon

  Twitch (live streaming video platform)

  Twitter

  Uber (ride-hailing service)

  180 days of change

  affiliate marketing program

  driver-led activism and protests

  Drivers’ Guild and

  FTC charges of exaggerated earnings

  funding

  growth of

  guaranteed fares

  history of

  independent contractor model

  lawsuits and legal issues

  “No shifts. No boss. No limits” pitch

  Pandora partnership

  politics and

  price war with Lyft

  rating system

  self-driving cars and

  surge pricing model

  SXSW and

  taxi industry and

  tips and

  Uber Freedom (Facebook page)

  #Uberspotting

  UberX

  unions and

  valuation

  worker benefits

  worker earnings

  worker equity packages

  worker expenses

  Xchange Leasing

  See also Campbell, Harry; Husein, Mamdooh; Kalanick, Travis; Leadum, Mario

  “Uber for X” model

  “Uberization” of work

  UN International Labour Office

  unemployment

  unemployment benefits

  unicorns (high-valuation startups)

  Unionen (Swedish white-collar trade union)

  unions. See labor and trade unions

  United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union

  Universal Basic Income (UBI)

  UPS

  Upwork (freelance marketplace)

  US Department of Labor

  USA Today

  venture capital

  gig economy and

  Google Ventures

  Managed by Q and

  TechCrunch Disrupt and

  Uber and

  venture capitalists

  VentureBeat (blog)

  Walker, Anthony

  Walmart

  Warner, Mark

  Warren, Elizabeth

  Washington Post

  Washio (on-demand laundry startup)

  WeFuel (on-demand fuel startup)

  Weil, David

  Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

  Wired (magazine)

  Woodhead, Carole

  workers advocacy group
s

  workers’ compensation

  Xchange Leasing

  Y Combinator (tech incubator)

  Yelp (user review website)

  Zaarly (online marketplace)

  Zirtual (virtual assistant services)

  Zuckerberg, Mark

  About the Author

  SARAH KESSLER is a reporter at Quartz, where she writes about the future of work. Before joining Quartz in 2016, she covered the gig economy as a senior writer at Fast Company and managed startup coverage at Mashable. Her reporting has been cited by The Washington Post, New York magazine, and NPR. You can sign up for email updates here.

  Thank you for buying this

  St. Martin’s Press ebook.

  To receive special offers, bonus content,

  and info on new releases and other great reads,

  sign up for our newsletters.

  Or visit us online at

  us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup

  For email updates on the author, click here.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Preface

  PART I

  The End of the Job

  1     A Very Old New Idea

  2     No Shifts. No Boss. No Limits.

  3     The Best of Bad Options

  4     Uber for X

  PART II

  Sunshine, Rainbows, and Unicorns

  5     Like an ATM in Your Pocket

  6     Uber Freedom

  PART III

  Fine Print

  7     A Competing Story

  8     Don’t Call Us

  9     The Good Jobs Strategy

  PART IV

  Backlash

  10   The Medium Is the Movement

  11   Uber for Politics

  PART V

  The Future of Work

  12   Pivot

  13   A Very Serious Issue

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Notes

  Index

  About the Author

  Copyright

  GIGGED. Copyright © 2018 by Sarah Kessler.

  All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Cover photograph: woman in car © lightpost/shutterstock.com

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Names: Kessler, Sarah, author.

  Title: Gigged: the end of the job and the future of work / Sarah Kessler.

  Description: New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018000121 | ISBN 9781250097897 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250097903 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Temporary employment—United States. | Flexible work arrangements—United States. | Labor—United States. | Labor market—United States.

  Classification: LCC HD5854.2.U6 K47 2018 | DDC 331.0973—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018000121

  e-ISBN 9781250097903

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].

  First Edition: June 2018