Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 122 of the Listening Time Podcast.
I hope you're all doing great.
In today's episode, we're going to talk about the gig economy.
So what is the gig economy?
First of all, what does the word gig mean?
A gig is a job that is short-term.
It's temporary.
It's not a big commitment.
It's not like a contract for a year or anything like that.
It's just a small job that someone can get.
So, for example, let's pretend you're a musician and you have a band and your band gets hired to play at a certain restaurant for a few hours on a Friday night.
You can say that this is a gig.
You're getting paid for it.
It's like a job, but it's not a formal job where you have a contract.
That's a gig.
So the gig economy refers to the market, which consists of temporary jobs that are performed by independent workers, and it's often through digital marketplaces.
Not always, but sometimes.
So, this is the gig economy.
Maybe the most famous gig economy job that you might think of would be an Uber driver, someone who drives using one of these ride-sharing apps.
We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a bit, but I just wanted to give you an example here.
So we'll talk about the gig economy, and I've worked in the gig economy before and I actually still do so I have some personal experience here, so this should be a good topic.
And before we start, remember that my new podcast is now available US Conversations.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about the gig economy.
So first let's talk about the pros and the cons of working in the gig economy, because in this life there are always pros and cons to pretty much everything.
So let's start with the pros.
So one of the best things about working in the gig economy is that it's really easy to start.
You usually don't need any degrees, any formal training, and you can maybe get the job without even interviewing, or maybe just doing a brief informal interview, for example.
That's very common.
So for people that don't have a university degree and maybe they don't have a very great resume, it can be a lot easier to get a gig economy job.
By the way, the word resume refers to this document that you use to show your professional background.
You send this to potential employers that you want to work for.
So you probably don't need that good of a resume to get a lot of these gig economy jobs.
So that's great.
There's a lot of flexibility with gig economy jobs, so oftentimes you get to decide when you work.
You get to set your schedule.
Often you can decide who you want to work with sometimes.
Not always, but sometimes.
And sometimes you can set your own price.
You can decide how much you're going to charge.
So you have a ton of flexibility here.
This type of job, this type of position can suit many different people.
The word suit, when used as a verb, means that something is appropriate for something or someone else.
If i say this suits me, I'm saying this is appropriate or comfortable or okay for me.
So these types of jobs can suit many people because they're often very flexible.
So it doesn't matter what type of person you are or what type of schedule you have.
You can often make these jobs fit into your lifestyle or your schedule.
So that's good.
And one other pro is that it gives you a lot of independence.
It gives you the feeling of freedom, because sometimes, when we have a traditional job, We feel like we don't have a lot of influence or a lot of independence in many cases, and that might be a problem for some people.
And maybe a person might not be in agreement with their company or or some of the policies or things like that, but they can't do anything about this if they're a contracted employee versus if you work in the gig economy.
You can decide a lot of things on your own.
You can feel like you're not forced to do things that you're not comfortable with or whatever.
So you have a lot of independence.
You have the ability to choose what you're going to do, what you're not going to do.
In many cases, not in all cases, but in many cases.
So those are some of the good things about working in the gig economy.
But of course, there are some negatives as well.
For example, people often feel less stable when they work in the gig economy.
The word stable in this context refers to feeling like you have foundation, like you have some security, for example.
So some people feel less stable when they don't have a contract with a company as an employee.
And I don't necessarily feel like this, and I think that many gig economy workers don't actually feel like this, but some people might feel this.
They might feel like they have more stability if they're an employee somewhere.
So that can be a negative.
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And another one would be that your income fluctuates every month.
So you don't earn the same amount every month.
You can't always predict the what your yearly income will be, because one month it goes up and another month it goes down.
It fluctuates.
The word fluctuate just means that something goes up and down.
It doesn't stay the same.
So that can be a negative for some people.
And one other negative might be the tax situation.
If you work in the gig economy, Oftentimes your taxes will be more complicated.
You might need to pay more taxes unfortunately, and that can cause some stress and it can cause you to pay more to the government sometimes.
So that depends, but that's often the case.
So that's another con of working in the gig economy.
So now let's talk about some examples of gig economy jobs.
There are many different jobs that someone might have in the gig economy, but I chose a few and we'll talk about those.
These are jobs that a lot of people have and maybe you've had one of these jobs.
Who knows?
Let's talk about some of them.
The first one is the one that I already mentioned, which is being a driver using a ride sharing app like Uber.
This is maybe the number one gig economy job that people think of when they think of these types of jobs.
So these ride sharing apps are kind of the modern taxi, right?
When I was a kid, before these ride sharing apps existed, if you wanted to have someone drive you to another location, then you needed to hail a taxi.
We use the phrase hail a taxi or hail a cab to mean that you stick your arm out and get the taxi to stop so that you can get in.
So that was how people hired other people to drive them in the past.
Of course, that still exists today.
And in many countries and in many regions this is still the main way that people hire other people to drive them.
And in some places, these ride-sharing apps are actually banned.
If something is banned, this means that it is illegal.
It means that you can't use it or it's not there, it's not available anymore, and so these apps are banned in some places, so not all of you will have access to this type of ride sharing.
I assume some of you might live in places where this doesn't exist right, But these Ryan sharing apps have become really common in a lot of places.
And these types of apps have provided a way for a lot of people to earn a living, even if they don't have many skills.
When we say that you earn a living, we're saying that you earn money.
You earn enough money to live.
So the only skill you really need is being able to drive, right?
Of course you need a car and it needs to fulfill the requirements that the app has, but that's it really.
Of course, you do need to be a little bit social.
If you don't really like talking to people, then this might be hard, because some of your passengers will want to talk to you.
That's just how this works.
Some people talk more than others.
Sometimes you won't need to talk to your passengers.
Sometimes you will need to talk to them, so that might be another thing to consider.
But this job is pretty flexible because you can work when you want to work right.
When you feel like you want to start driving, then you can start.
So that's really cool.
A lot of people are drawn to this job because of that.
When we say that you're drawn to something, we're saying that you're attracted to it.
So a lot of people are drawn to this type of work because of that flexibility.
And to be honest, I love these apps.
I think that they're really useful.
I think that they have made a lot of people's lives better because they exist.
I have used these apps. many, many, many times.
And so I really appreciate these apps and the drivers of these apps.
And I think this is a great thing.
So that's one of the really popular gig economy jobs.
Another one, which is kind of similar, is with delivery apps.
So this is kind of like ridesharing, but without the social aspect.
So you're not taking a person to another place, you're taking food or some other item to another place.
So you're still driving, or you're riding a bike, or you're on a motorcycle or whatever, but You don't have another person with you.
You have something with you, oftentimes food.
So this can be a really good option for people that want to earn a living just by driving, but maybe they don't want the social aspect of needing to talk to passengers.
So this can be a good option for those types of people.
And one thing that I really like about this option is that you can multitask, right?
You can listen to something while you're doing it.
If you're in your car or if you're riding a bike or whatever.
You can have some podcast playing in the background.
And you can practice your English, for example.
You can listen to this podcast, for example.
If you drive for a ride-sharing app, you can't always do that because your passenger might not want to listen to your podcast or whatever.
So that's not the case when it comes to being a delivery driver, because you don't have anyone else to tell you that they don't want to listen to something, right?
So that's a good option for people that want to multitask and maybe don't want the social aspect.
And another one, another gig economy job is... in the realm of online education.
The word realm just means the sphere, the world.
Okay, so the online education world.
So this is the type of gig economy job that I have a lot of experience with.
So I have taught online.
I've taught English online for many years. and I'm not an employee of a company.
I use a platform where I am connected to students and then they can choose to take classes with me using that platform.
So that's how it works.
I've done it for many years and I really like the flexibility of it because I can set my own schedule.
I can teach when I want to teach and But of course, I have to follow this schedule.
If someone schedules a class during the time when I open my availability, I have to show up for that class.
I can't just say, nah, I don't feel like working today.
No, I have to go to that class.
So it doesn't have quite the flexibility that Uber has, for example, where if the person doesn't feel like driving that day, then they just don't drive.
With this type of job, I can set my own schedule, but I have to follow it.
If people schedule classes, then I have to go to those classes, of course.
But it's not hard to do that and I'm pretty organized, so that's fine.
And this type of job allows for a lot of freedom.
I can teach what I want.
I can do my classes however I want or however the student wants.
And I don't have to follow any specific guidelines from an employer.
I don't have to use their books or their material or whatever.
I can pretty much do what I want.
Obviously, I have to follow some rules, right?
But I don't have an employer that's telling me what I need to do, right?
And it's a fun job because you get to talk to a lot of different people some interesting students, of course and it allows you to work wherever you want in the world, as long as you have an internet connection.
So that's been very helpful for me because I've moved a lot over the past three or four years.
I've moved to many different places and locations I've moved from one apartment to another.
I've even moved between countries.
So it's been really helpful that my job allows for that.
By the way, people often ask me about taking classes with me.
I don't have a lot of availability and I'll let you know in the future if I open up more availability And you can take classes.
But at this point I don't have a ton of availability so I'm not really advertising my services here.
But yeah, online education is a good option for a gig economy job.
And some people can do writing online.
Maybe you know how to do technical writing or copywriting.
Or maybe you can write articles for people or for companies or whatever.
So maybe you like writing and you're a good writer.
You can turn that into a gig economy job.
So it's like you're a freelancer.
You can work with different clients and write for them and find new clients and turn that into a full career.
So that's another one that people might be able to do.
And there are also gig economy jobs that don't require the Internet.
So for example, you might like animals, and so maybe you become a pet sitter.
When we say the word sit or the word sitter in this context, we're saying that you watch the pet.
So if I say that I'm a babysitter, I'm saying that I watch animals. this baby.
I take care of this baby.
So a pet sitter is someone who takes care of other people's pets.
So if you like animals, this might be a great job for you, because you don't really need other skills.
You just need to like animals and, And I think that this job can be less stressful than some of the other jobs that I mentioned.
And if you like animals, it's probably really fun.
You might enjoy your work if you like dogs or cats or whatever.
And oftentimes you get the chance to go outside.
That's nice.
With a lot of these other jobs, you're in front of a computer or you're in your car for many hours.
But if you're a pet sitter, you might be able to go to the park or be in the backyard and enjoy the outdoors.
And you can multitask, of course.
You can listen to things.
You don't need to be using your hands 100% of the time if you're a pet sitter.
So you can do other things.
And so that's a gig economy job that doesn't require the internet.
And one more gig economy job that's more of an in-person job is being a photographer.
If you're passionate about photography, you can put that to good use and make money.
It's a very creative job.
You will probably feel very satisfied and fulfilled doing this job.
If you like photography.
You get to put your passion and creativity to good use and actually earn a living from that.
That's pretty cool.
So, depending on what and who you decide to take pictures of, You can earn money within a very wide range.
You might earn less money or more money.
It just depends on what type of photographer you are.
But no matter who you are and what you take pictures of, you can start to build your portfolio and start to earn more respect, start to charge more money.
Once you can show the client all your amazing pictures that you've already taken, you can start to charge more because they are gonna want to pay more for a good photographer.
So you can definitely grow in your career, so to say, as a photographer.
So Those are some examples of gig economy jobs.
There are many, many more, but those are the ones that I chose to talk about.
All right.
Why don't we stop there for today?
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Conversations podcast at It's an exclusive podcast, so you need to sign up.
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All right, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
