The Gig Is Up

Win in a world of increasing choice by becoming the clear, unique fit. The gig economy is made up of project-based, or on-demand services, that can be provided by anyone. The common denominator in the gig economy is technology, so our modern online-lives provide the perfect marketplace for the ever-diversifying opportunities in the gig economy. By some estimates, 2020 will see half of all workers involved in the gig economy. Are we ready for this seismic shift in our work lives? ​Freelancers need to clearly answer “Why choose you?” so that they stand out in the new economy. Because all workers in the gig economy need to bluntly pose this question to themselves, The Gig Is Up is designed to answer this one key point head-on, giving readers innovative tools like Unique Value Proposition to confidently step up. The Gig Is Up offers the best boots-on-the-ground methods for success, by evolving the reader’s perspective and process. Many books on the gig economy focus on letting people live out their dreams, instead of looking at the realities of what it truly takes to win in a world of increasing choice. People need to understand how to compete and how to put the best version of themselves up front and center. The goal in competing today is to not only be chosen, but to move toward becoming the only choice, over and over again

Today, most Americans are working in the gig economy--mixing together short-term jobs, contract work, and freelance assignments. Learn how to embrace the independent and self-sufficient world of freelance! The Gig Economy is your guide to this uncertain but ultimately rewarding world. Packed with research, exercises, and anecdotes, this eye-opening book supplies strategies--ranging from the professional to the personal--to help you leverage your skills, knowledge, and network to create your own career trajectory. In this book, you will learn how to: Construct a life based on your priorities and vision of success Cultivate connections without networking Create your own security Build flexibility into your financial life Face your fears by reducing risk Corporate jobs are not only unstable--they’re increasingly scarce. It’s time to take charge of your own career and lead the life you want, one immune to the impulsive whims of an employer looking only at today’s bottom line. Start mapping out your place in the gig economy today!

Why the Gig Academy is the dominant organizational form within the higher education economy—and its troubling implications for faculty, students, and the future of college education. Over the past two decades, higher education employment has undergone a radical transformation with faculty becoming contingent, staff being outsourced, and postdocs and graduate students becoming a larger share of the workforce. For example, the faculty has shifted from one composed mostly of tenure-track, full-time employees to one made up of contingent, part-time teachers. Non-tenure-track instructors now make up 70 percent of college faculty. Their pay for teaching eight courses averages $22,400 a year—less than the annual salary of most fast-food workers. In The Gig Academy, Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola, and Daniel T. Scott assess the impact of this disturbing workforce development. Providing an overarching framework that takes the concept of the gig economy and applies it to the university workforce, this book scrutinizes labor restructuring across both academic and nonacademic spheres. By synthesizing these employment trends, the book reveals the magnitude of the problem for individual workers across all institutional types and job categories while illustrating the damaging effects of these changes on student outcomes, campus community, and institutional effectiveness. A pointed critique of contemporary neoliberalism, the book also includes an analysis of the growing divide between employees and administrators. The authors conclude by examining the strengthening state of unionization among university workers. Advocating a collectivist, action-oriented vision for reversing the tide of exploitation, Kezar, DePaola, and Scott urge readers to use the book as a tool to interrogate the state of working relations on their own campuses and fight for a system that is run democratically for the benefit of all. Ultimately, The Gig Academy is a call to arms, one that encourages non-tenure-track faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate students, and administrative and tenure-track allies to unite in a common struggle against the neoliberal Gig Academy.

When the "sharing economy" launched a decade ago, proponents claimed that it would transform the experience of work -- giving earners flexibliitiy, autonomy, and a decent income. But this novel form of work soon sprouted a dark side: exploited Uber drivers, neighborhoods ruined by Airbnb, racial discrimination, and rising carbon emissions. Several of the most prominent platforms are now faced with existential crises as they prioritize growth over fairness and long-term viability. Based on nearly a decade of pioneering research, After the Gig dives into what went wrong with this contemporary reimagining of labor. The book examines multiple types of data from thirteen cases to identify the unique features and potential of sharing platforms that prior research has failed to pinipoint

Choose your hours, choose your work, be your own boss, control your own income. Welcome to the sharing economy, a nebulous collection of online platforms and apps that promise to transcend capitalism. Supporters argue that the gig economy will reverse economic inequality, enhance worker rights, and bring entrepreneurship to the masses. But does it? In Hustle and Gig, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle shares the personal stories of nearly eighty predominantly millennial workers from Airbnb, Uber, TaskRabbit, and Kitchensurfing. Their stories underline the volatility of working in the gig economy: the autonomy these young workers expected has been usurped by the need to maintain algorithm-approved acceptance and response rates. The sharing economy upends generations of workplace protections such as worker safety; workplace protections around discrimination and sexual harassment; the right to unionize; and the right to redress for injuries. Discerning three types of gig economy workers—Success Stories, who have used the gig economy to create the life they want; Strugglers, who can’t make ends meet; and Strivers, who have stable jobs and use the sharing economy for extra cash—Ravenelle examines the costs, benefits, and societal impact of this new economic movement. Poignant and evocative, Hustle and Gig exposes how the gig economy is the millennial’s version of minimum-wage precarious work.

We all use Canadian English every day: when we order a pizza "all-dressed", hope to get a "seat-sale" to go south during "March break", or "book off" work to meet with a "CGA" to discuss "RRSPs". Language embodies our nation''s identity, and The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, in its 1,728 pages,covers all aspects of Canadian life. Never before have Canadians been able to see their language, and themselves, so accurately and comprehensively described in a dictionary. The loggers of the west coast, the wheat farmers of the Prairies, the fishermen of the Atlantic provinces, the trappers ofthe North; Canada''s Aboriginal peoples, its British and French settlers, and the more recent arrivals, whether they came from Ukraine, Italy, South Asia or elsewhere - all have contributed to making Canadian English unique, and the dictionary thus reflects the great sweep of Canadian life. Itcontains over 2,000 distinctly Canadian words and meanings, more than any other Canadian dictionary, covering every region of the country. Whether you call your favorite doughnut a jambuster, a bismark, a Burlington bun, or the more prosaic jelly doughnut may depend on where you live in Canada, butthey will all be found in The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Of course, this is not just a dictionary of Canadian words: its 130,000 entries combine in one reference book information on English as it is used worldwide and as it is used particularly in Canada. Definitions, worded for ease ofcomprehension, are presented so the meaning most familiar to Canadians appears first and foremost. Each of these entries is exceptionally reliable, the result of thorough research into the language and Oxford''s unparalleled language resources. Five professionally trained lexicographers spent fiveyears examining databases containing over 20 million words of Canadian text from more than 8,000 Canadian sources of an astonishing diversity. Inuit Art Quarterly, The Fiddlehead, Canadian Business, and Equinox; the work of writers such as Jack Hodgins, Sandra Birdsell, David Adams Richards, andPierre Berton; daily and weekly newspapers from across the country; and, of course, the Canadian Tire catalogue - all find a place in the evidence of The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. The lexicographers also examined an additional 20 million words of international English sources. For many Canadiansone of the more puzzling aspects of writing is trying to determine whether to use the American spelling or the British spelling. Should it be "colour" or "color", "theater" or "theatre", "programme" or "program"? By examining our extensive Canadian databases, our lexicographers have been able todetermine which, in fact, is the more common spelling: colour, theatre and program. Favoured Canadian pronunciations have also been determined by surveying a nationwide group of respondents. Oxford''s thorough research has also ensured that new words that have recently appeared are well-represented.So if you''re someone who puts on your "bicycle shorts" and "blades" over to the gym to do some "crunches" for your "abs" followed by work on your "lats", "pecs" and "delts", finishing up with a "step" class, because you''re afraid that being a "chocoholic" who loves "comfort food" will affect your"body mass index" and you want to avoid "yo-yo dieting", you''ll find all these common words in The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. An added feature of this dictionary is its encyclopedic element. It includes short biographies of over 800 Canadians, ranging from Elvis Stojko, Celine Dion and JeanBeliveau to Nellie McClung, Lester B. Pearson, and Kim Campbell. It also contains entries on 5,000 individuals and mythical figures of international significance, and almost 6,000 place names, more than 1,200 of them Canadian. Indeed, all Canadian towns with a population of 5,000 or more arefeatured, and their entries not only explain the origin of the place name, but also include the population based on the 1996 census. With the publication of The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press adds another work to its highly respected range of dictionaries, and Canadians finallyhave a dictionary that truly reflects their nations.

All of a sudden, everybody’s talking about the gig economy. From taxi drivers to pizza deliverers to the unemployed, we are all aware of the huge changes that it is driving in our lives as workers, consumers and citizens. This is the first comprehensive overview of this highly topical subject. Drawing upon years of research, stories from gig workers, and a review of the key trends and debates, Jamie Woodcock and Mark Graham shed light on how the gig economy came to be, how it works and what it’s like to work in it. They show that, although it has facilitated innovative new services and created jobs for millions, it is not without cost. It allows businesses and governments to generate value while passing significant risk and responsibility onto the workers that make it possible. This is not, however, an argument for turning back the clock. Instead, the authors outline four strategies that can produce a fairer platform economy that works for everyone. Woodcock and Graham’s critical introduction will be essential reading for students, scholars and general readers interested in the massive shifts that characterize our modern digital economy.

This edited collection examines the gig economy in the age of convergence from a critical political economic perspective. Contributions explore how media, technology, and labor are converging to create new modes of production, as well as new modes of resistance. From rideshare drivers in Los Angeles to domestic workers in Delhi, from sex work to podcasting, this book draws together research that examines the gig economy's exploitation of workers and their resistance. Employing critical theoretical perspectives and methodologies in a variety of national contexts, contributors consider the roles that media, policy, culture, and history, as well as gender, race, and ethnicity play in forging working conditions in the 'gig economy'. Contributors examine the complex and historical relationships between media and gig work integral to capitalism with the aim of exposing and, ultimately, ending exploitation. This book will appeal to students and scholars examining questions of technology, media, and labor across media and communication studies, information studies, and labor studies as well as activists, journalists, and policymakers.