Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death

That article from the New Yorker might have been the most convoluted article that I have read in a long while. If this is how Jia Tolentino wanted to portray the Gig Economy, then the way her article came across would really get the point across. In Tagalog slang, it’s what you may call “sabog” article.

In case you have not realized yet, I am a freelance writer. There may be times when I am “sabog” myself. But then again I make it a point to catch some sleep to avoid writing any article whatsoever while half-asleep. Because I just compromised my craft’s artistry. I consider myself lucky not (yet) pressured with all the stress that comes with wracking my brains out for the sake of spitting a minimum of 500 words per article from my fingertips. Then, after getting some sleep, I look at my draft again and check for any typos.

Ms. Tolentino, you just wrote a clickbait article. Albeit pissed, I understand. But you should at least come up with some argument about how the gig economy is indeed making people work to death. Then again, you mentioned Little Miss Lyft’s hardworking mom as an example.

I first heard (or watched) about that poor woman on YouTube. Everyone admires the pregnant driver for still taking some passengers even if she’s already on the verge of labor. Not clear if the amniotic fluid splashed under the wheel. But some loose change is not worth the risk of losing your baby simply because Lyft still keeps sending driving gigs along your way. That’s when the “working yourself to death” kicks in.

Before this article becomes about her, it then becomes an issue if some folks accepting gigs still have enough time to rest. I am aware of some newbies in the freelancing space that took months to finally get that “full-time home-based gig”. (I remember one of them - particularly one of them - keeps peppering me with questions about Upwork and anything about freelancing before checking out Google. That alone gives me an idea that if she can’t even do basic research alone, she’ll never be successful in her freelancing endeavor.)

It is hard to get a “full-time gig”. Personally I don’t always call it a gig since I still view it as a job - a series of tasks that I do complimentary to my passion in writing and helpful to the client’s need for website content. But the fact that some freelancers forget what freelancing is all about makes them susceptible to the trap of “working yourself to death”.

Because why will it even be called freelancing if you are not free as far as your schedule goes? Several employees take on the gig economy for the freedom it gives them. Their own terms. Their own schedule. Their own income without some middleman to deduct whatever from it. Then I end up reading about examples used by Ms. Tolentino to hardsell the concept stated in the clickbait title.

Maybe if she focused on the not-so-subtle references made at how some freelancers at their earliest stage are practically overworked and underpaid like in that notorious Fiverr poster, she could have gotten a better argument to use to sustain the idea mentioned in the title. Because not everyone taking in the gigs from Fiverr are sleepless caffeine junkies. (And most of the jobs I got are not from Fiverr.)

I hate to say that her article got the point across a lot more effectively because she herself is sleep-deprived like the model used for the “In Doers We Trust” campaign. I just can’t be harsh on her as I’ve had worse articles in the past. Main difference is that I never deprive myself of sleep. And it’s not about vanity. I need my sanity. Sleep is one way for me to recharge my brain.