The Money Wasn't Worth the Boredom, Hard-To-Please Customers Don't Count, NFTS and the Creator Economy, 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 internet trend 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.

Instacart's new rating system filters out scores from hard-to-please customers - You can't please some people, and Instacart's new rating system for shoppers acknowledges that. It automatically filters out ratings from hard-to-please customers who frequently rate their shoppers lower than five stars. Instacart says the new system is designed to promote a "fair experience" for the shoppers tasked with delivering groceries to users' homes.

Smiler comes up with a different kind of gig economy for event, and venue photographers - Traditional venue photography providers like DEI Global, Magic Memories, Picsolve, and Sharingbox rely on fixed equipment, permanent staffing costs, and on-site printed products. So Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Smiler, came up with a different approach. Freelance photographers can use the platform to roam around events, selling event photography formally attached to the venue and allowing customers to buy photos online.

The future belongs to businesses that can evolve with an adaptive workforce - The way companies work had been shifting for over a decade when the COVID-19 pandemic upended irreversibly in 2020. Today, much of the talk about the "future of work" is about the mixed experience of remote and hybrid work models, the ever-elusive return to the office, and whether working a nine-to-five job full time is worth it at all.

2022 Annual Impact Report - Even today's hyper-connected world, where we're born, plays a significant role in our opportunities. Significant are our employment opportunities, as they're linked to financial stability, personal growth and development, and a sense of purpose.

The Creator Economy 

The Creator Economy has many similarities to the sharing and gig economies in 2012-2015. Independent talent, 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.

African Creator Economy: A Socioeconomic Renaissance of The Continent? - Debating Ideas aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original, and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books.

Can You Make a Living in the Creator Economy? - The creator economy has undergone a profound evolution. Social media and the rise of sites to paywall or sell work have enabled anyone to become a creator. It isn't easy to truly understand how much the sector is worth, but some estimate it to be around $20 billion and growing rapidly.

NFTs and the creator economy are on a collision course - If it feels like the NFT trend is already ubiquitous, then, to coin a phrase, you ain't seen nothin' yet. NFTs may be one of the most talked-about trends on social media, although until now, NFTs haven't featured much on social media until now. But that's set to change.

The Changing Workplace

The Creator Economy has many similarities to the sharing and gig economies in 2012-2015. Independent talent, 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.

How "Digital Nomad" Visas Can Boost Local Economies - More and more companies are offering their employees the option to "work from anywhere," whether in their home office, in another state, or even halfway around the globe. A growing group of remote professionals is taking the "anywhere" in work-from-anywhere to new lengths. These "digital nomads" leverage their remote jobs to allow them to live in tourist hotspots or tropical destinations for months at a time. Others engage in months-long "work-cations," combining periods of working and tourism.

Future of Work: Taskrabbit CEO permanently ditches the office - The pandemic fundamentally altered Taskrabbit CEO Ania Smith's idea of work, leading her to make a dramatic decision in April: shutter all of the company's offices.

I quit my job as a Netflix engineer making $450,000 a year. The money wasn't worth the boredom - Michael Lin joined Netflix in 2017 as a senior software engineer. At first, he enjoyed his role. After two years, Lin wanted to go into product management but found no clear pipeline to follow. He lost motivation and eventually received his preemptive severance package in May 2021.

Cubicle farms and open floor plans are out. The post-pandemic office layout will invite employees in - Corporate America's real estate footprint has changed significantly since the COVID-19 outbreak. While some companies are adapting to new remote- or hybrid-friendly futures, others insist that employees return to the office full-time. Regardless, the typical office layout has undergone a complete turnaround from prioritizing desk allocation to focusing on spaces that enable collaboration and high-quality experiences.

Wellness 

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

  It's Time To Check In On Your Employee Wellness Programs - Over the past few years, conversations about employee wellbeing have skyrocketed -- and rightly so. But for many organizations, it seems like the buck stops there: only 24% of workers strongly agree their employer cares about their wellbeing. We must keep having these conversations -- but the truth is, talk is cheap when keeping employees happy, healthy, and engaged.

PAUL ESTES, the best-selling author of the best-selling book Gig Mindset and 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.