Gig Companies Report Q2 Earnings, Quiet Quitting, the Importance of Online Charisma, and More...

Approximately 60 million independent workers in the United States represent $1.5 trillion in U.S. GDP and growing. Projections estimate that 50% of our U.S. workforce will be independent workers by 2025- 2030. The Gig Economy represents a trend that will digitally transform the future of work.

I believe that?every organization?in?every industry?needs a Gig Economy strategy. Not having one is like missing the rise of the internet in 1990 or the mobile revolution in 2010.

The Freelance Revolution

The rise of independent contractors and globalization of knowledge work is the Industrial Revolution of our time. We can see the U.S. workforce undergoing a massive structural change everywhere we look.

Uber Has Shown Us the Future It Wants for Employment ?- Ever since Uber and Lyft successfully bankrolled Proposition 22 in California, a ballot measure that carved gig workers out of traditional employment and all the rights and protections it conveys, those companies and others have been?trying to replicate ?the victory in other states. They've followed a similar model in each place, crafting legislation or ballot measures that would deem rideshare and delivery drivers exempt from employee status but purport to offer them other benefits.

What the Q2 earnings reports told us about the gig economy ?- The largest gig-work companies ( Uber , Lyft , DoorDash , Just Eat Takeaway.com ) reported earnings last week, and investors were quick to look for any signs that economic pressure is tightening consumer spending.

Smart Investors Know How Much Potential Wealth Is Trapped in This Key Market ?- Where's the?crowdfunding ?for?freelancers ? Over the past decade, there's been a tremendous rise in?alternative investment models , but the demand in one key market far exceeds the supply. The number of freelancers — people whose?business ?is their labor — is growing. Still, the financial products available to them are stagnant, to the detriment of both?investors ?and freelancers. Let's explore why.

Uber's push into patient transport renews calls for gig economy reform ?- Uber's push into patient transport has renewed calls to regulate the gig economy with minimum pay and conditions. On Friday, the rideshare company?launched ?Uber Health in Australia to provide non-emergency transportation for medical appointments, competing with state-based taxi voucher schemes.

If the Job Market Is So Good, Why Is Gig Work Thriving? ?- American workers are experiencing, by many measures, one of the best job markets ever. The unemployment rate has matched a 53-year low. Job listings per available worker are at historic highs. While not quite keeping up with inflation, wages have been rising faster for decades.

The Creator Economy?

The Creator Economy is like the sharing and gig economies in 2012-2015 that ushered in an explosion of creativity driven by individuals, technology platforms, and hype. All are driven by the dream of making a living by doing what you love. At over $100B+ the creator economy is just getting started.

What is 'quiet quitting,' and how it may be a misnomer for setting boundaries at work ?- Closing your laptop at 5 p.m. Doing only your assigned tasks. Spending more time with family. These are just some common examples used to define the latest workplace trend of "quiet quitting." Some experts say it's a misnomer and should be defined as carving out time to take care of yourself.

Why Create? The $100 Billion Industry You've Likely Never Heard About ?- 2 Million people are now professional creators, and 50% of them earn a living out of YouTube. According to?Forbes , the creator economy has become a $100 billion industry.

Instagram Influencers Are Standing Up for Creators With F*** you, Pay Me ?- What do we talk about when we talk about a fair working environment? The goalposts have certainly shifted during the past decade, as the coronavirus pandemic raged throughout 2020 and 2021. Work in the United Kingdom and the United States is less stable than ever, as the proportion of gig economy workers has risen. Rights have been eroded, and government policies have favored big business and increasingly unscrupulous employers.

Tech Giants Are Racing To Compete With TikTok—Here's How ?- Google?announced ?Thursday it would take more steps to promote high-quality content in its search results. At the same time, the?Wall Street Journal?reported ?this week that Amazon will try out a new video feature for shoppers, becoming the latest tech giant to introduce changes to try to compete with the increasingly popular TikTok .

Gen Z TikTok creators are turning against Amazon ?- A coalition of top TikTok stars is pledging to cease all work with Amazon — including shutting down storefronts and halting new partnerships with the e-commerce platform — until the company meets the demands of the Amazon Labor Union.

The Changing Workplace

We see unprecedented numbers of companies implementing remote work programs. How we work has forever changed and requires new skills and leadership approaches.

Leadership online: Charisma matters most in video communication ?- Managers need to make a consistent impression to motivate and inspire people, and that applies even more to video communication than to other digital channels. That is the result of a study by researchers at Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) .

The four forces workplaces can't ignore ?- Workforces have been shaped throughout human history by four key forces: specialization, scarcity, rivalry, and humanity. In a new report, professional services firm 普华永道 suggests businesses should be using these?four forces to plan their future workforces .

How Trust Runs the World ?- Trust is the prerequisite to building anything excellent and meaningful in this world. The problem is that humans do a lot of shit that makes them untrustworthy. Our natural disposition is to be?short-term, selfish actors . Research shows that most people will?lie ,?cheat , or steal if put in a position where they believe they can get away with it. On top of that, we instinctively fall prey to?"us versus them" thinking , which we then use to justify lying, cheating, or stealing.

Wellness?

We will spend one-third of our lives working, and the disruption to how we work has never moved faster. This can impact our overall wellness as we navigate the changing landscape and fight for balance.

?How to recover from burnout if you can't change jobs or take time off ?- It seems everyone is?burning out from work . The?backlash against hustle culture , the trend of?"quiet quitting," ?and?the Great Resignation ?indicate that more and more employees are unwilling to make their careers the center of their lives.

PAUL ESTES, founder of?XpertLinkAI ?and the best-selling author of the best-selling book?Gig Mindset , is an unstoppable advocate for the simple idea of ensuring that all voices are heard and that all people have access to opportunity. This passion is inspired by the quote from the late?Leila Janah ?"Talent?is equally distributed,?opportunity is not."?Now is the time to address systemic?location bias ?and encourage companies to reach beyond their organizational boundaries to engage the world's best minds.?For 20 years, He struggled to balance his life with fast-moving leadership roles at Dell, Amazon, and Microsoft. He led a team of progressive H.R., procurement, and legal trailblazers to launch Microsoft's Gig Economy freelance program. Hiring his first virtual assistant transformed the way he lived and worked.

Paul is the former host of the Gig Mindset and Talent Economy podcasts. Each week, Paul provides insights and perspective to over 100,000 readers of his weekly LinkedIn newsletter, and he frequently shares his insights as a keynote speaker and panelist.?