Gig work, my thoughts thereof


2021 04 07  |  journal

Share your thoughts on the new realities of working Canadians: The right to disconnect and gig work

The Government of Canada knows that as the way we work evolves, labour protections must evolve as well. They must evolve to reflect the realities of working Canadians. This includes protections such as those provided in the Canada Labour Code. In order to address today's workplace realities, the Government wants to better understand:

* the experiences of gig workers* in federally regulated sectors. This includes those who work through digital platforms like delivery or freelance applications

* how federally regulated workers could benefit from a “right to disconnect”. For example, having clear expectations for the use of cellphones after workers finish their day

The government has recently asked for input on gig work. I've discussed it many times, but thought I'd combine all of that into one post and share it. If you are a gig or contract worker in Canada, please consider participating in this. All information is provided via the link above.

I have finally, after decades on this planet, found work that suits my education, life experience, personal interests, intellect, language skills, and temperament. This is a first. I've hated every other job I've ever had. But like many people, one does what one can get.

I have finally found work that my disability doesn't impact. This is true for many of the folk that work for the same company. Many have disabilities or chronic illnesses that impact their ability to find and keep traditional employment. There are precious few employers who would either want, or be able, to hire someone with a condition that could unpredictably and irregularly impact their ability not only to do work, but also their ability to even be at work.

I am free to work when I want on what I want. The web-based nature of the work platform affords me the ability to choose from available jobs. I am not forced into taking on something that I have no interest in nor ability for. This also comes in handy if you are, sometimes as I am, an insomniac. If you happen to be up at 4 AM and there's work available on the platform, you can work if you want to.

I am free from morally objectionable actions and the fallout and residue thereof. Things happen in retail that I find, to say the least, distasteful, and I am relieved to be rid of it, and rid of dealing with customers. This holds true for phone sales work of any kind also. It never felt like anything other than that I was violating people, pressuring them, coercing and guilting them into actions they would not normally do to gain a result they didn't need. Credit card balance protection insurance is one of the worst culprits in this arena.

I am free to take whatever breaks I want and need when I want and need them, and I am free to sleep off a sickness if I need to.

I am free to pursue hobbies, volunteering, other work, whatever I want, because my flexible schedule affords me this.

I am free from direct contact with a mansplaining supervisor who treats me like I have the IQ of a rutabaga.

I am free from dress code constraints.

I am free from the lunchtime problems associated with being broke and working in public, which means when I'm having a lean day, I can eat things to satiate which would not be possible in a public place.

I am free from the weather.

I am free to enjoy a day off as an actual day off, and not merely a battery reset or chore day.

I am free to travel.

I am free from travel.

I am free to deal with personal emergencies, my own, or that of others.

I am free from stress I don't make myself.

There are still challenges though. Nothing is a Utopia.

I was already doing this work when the pandemic struck. So, unlike many, I was still able to work when there was work to be done. The pandemic did impact incoming work from outside sources, but that sped back up once people figured out how Zoom worked and started asking for those to be transcribed. That is a problem in general though, that the work is unpredictable. There are parts of the year when the work can slow down to a literal crawl - the month or two right before and after Christmas, and also between the end of May into early September.

It doesn't pay as much as I wish it did, the work I do. But I am at a loss as to how one could require a company improve their pay structure to contract workers without impacting that company's ability or desire to operate where I live so that I can keep working. The company I work for operates out of another country, too, and a large portion of their workers are not native to the country that company operates from. None of us are required to pay taxes in that country as none of us are making the minimum required for a tax form to be produced. I pay taxes in Canada as a self-employed person.

Along with this is how to ensure the workers are paid appropriately for their work when each and every one of them works differently and at a different pace. How do you ensure acceptable payout when a person is given a task and a deadline, and everyone's going to reach the end of that task in a different span of time, working at a different pace than their fellows, and either finishing long before the deadline, right at the deadline, or sometimes past it?

One of the challenges many of my fellows talk about is having their families and friends see what they do as real work. Because they do it from home and on contract they aren't taken seriously. Constant interruptions or challenges from housemates are a common discussion thread on our work forums. If they aren't leaving the house in some nine-to-five fashion, they aren't taken seriously and there are constant demands on them during their work time from family and others. They often face disparagement based on others' views of their employment. That really is one of the bigger challenges for us at the company we work at, social impressions of the work. There is this aura of lack of legitimacy that can be hard to overcome. Many of our customers even don't believe actual people are doing the work. Many believe all of it is automated.

As for contact from the company itself, there's very little of it. Sometimes they offer a bonus for those willing to do more work, but those are few and far between and do not impact your employability. If you don't take part, you don't take part.

As for the right to disconnect, that is not a thing that needs to be aimed solely at gig or contract work. You need to aim that at everyone at all levels of a company. I knew disconnection was going to become a problem the first time I saw a TV commercial for one of the first online companies that offered a way for you to connect to your work computer from home. Your work day should end when your work day ends. Your home time, weekends, family time, vacations, should not be a constant gouge on your peace of mind by a nagging employer who tries to guilt you into abandoning yourself to their demands. But they do it. I have seen it so many times with so many friends in many different industries and at all levels of employment. "You owe us." No, you don't. They owe you. They owe you money for your time. You do not owe them loyalty, and all of your time. You owe them for the time they pay you for. As time goes on, though, and more jobs are combined as a company tries to save money and/or increase profits, more and more is demanded and less and less offered in return. I recall a story I heard one time from this guy who thought he had a good work-life balance because he got to spend a half an hour with his son every morning before he went to work. His son was always in bed before he got home from that work. He was spending 12 to 14 hours in the office every day. How about a right for him to disconnect from that before he forgets what his wife looks like?

People should work to live, not live to work.

Another concern is finding ways to offer protections to people that don't impact their work. In the US, for example, some states are enacting laws that require reclassification of gig workers as employees and not independent contractors. There are exemptions to the reclassifications, but not all work done on a contract basis is covered, so they were reclassified as employees. Some companies are simply pulling up stakes and not operating in those states at all any longer. It means that thousands of people are losing their means of employment because the laws are such that they can't cross-border work between states. If you live in California, you're SOL in finding a digital means of work in some cases that's operating out of another state. Those companies simply will not hire you. It's a far more complicated situation than this, and I did not follow it as deeply as I should. That said, a balance needs to be struck between protecting workers and not impacting a company's desire to operate where those protections and reclassifications happen.

Over the past year there seems to be an increased idea from some quarters that so much working from home will make people antisocial. I couldn't disagree with that more. Possibly it might make some folk less socially adept, but that's not being antisocial that's just being awkward. The stress of working in an awkward or toxic workplace is what makes some folks antisocial. I can't count the number of times friends won't want to socialise because their workplaces drain them so much they just don't want to deal with any more people. I am free from the obligations, traumas, and demands of a traditional workplace. Office politics, perfume that aggravates my migraines and make me ill, and illness itself.

Once the stresses of a toxic work environment are removed, or the forced socialising that saps so much energy out of a person, now you have the energy and the desire to be around people for fun, for support, for whatever reason you see fit. Workplaces can sometimes suck you dry with all the forced good mood, happy, socialising, lack of ability to vent the stress, the politics, the bullshit, the machinations, the gossip. The only people that might be made antiosicial by working from home are people that would have been antisocial anyhow. Maybe we should just let them be in an environment that works better for them.

I don't need to be buddies with my workmates. I don't enjoy team-building exercises. I don't want, or need, as an adult, to be told how I should feel and react. I just want to get my work done and go home. I don't want to make my workplace some extended arm of my person. I don't want to give the same loyalty to my workplace as I do to my family, friends, causes, volunteering. Things that actually matter. Working is how I make money. I don't need to be forced to see it as anything more than that.

The only thing I felt after leaving my last in-office customer service job was relief.

I have been lucky to find contract work I can do from home that leaves me free to explore my life in whatever way I see fit. After this level of freedom I don't think I'd ever be able to fit myself back into the strictures of a traditional workplace. I know I sure don't want to.

Some questions that need to be addressed:



Note: I am not willing to name the company I work for because I and some of my fellows don't want the company targeted out of their ability to offer us employment. I am also still at a loss as to how the government could offer protections without completely cutting off a company's desire or ability to operate here. When and if I come up with something, I'll share it.

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