gig Economy

If you work remotely you are not going to buy your usual coffee and sandwich near your office, and that is going to have economic consequences so someone should pay for that through higher taxes. That is the premise behind a suggestion from Deutsche Bank...

18 November, 2020 /

The gig economy gets a lot of negative press, but is it actually a bad thing? Although some think it is synonymous with income insecurity and bad management practices, in fact for many it is the way they choose to work. For professional workers who...

14 October, 2020 /

Are you afraid of unemployment or are you sure you are forever employable? As the economic outlook becomes increasingly uncertain, many people would put themselves in the first category but would certainly like to be in the second. Our guest today is Jeff Gothelf, author...

30 September, 2020 /

  Yes I miss in-person presentations, a lot actually, but cool that we can still keep the conversations going. Here I am on someone's laptop (you can see his coffee mug to the right) as I speak to the Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association fall conference...

22 September, 2020 /

Freelance work something of a controversial workforce trend. To some, it is the dreaded gig economy, those who are forced to work on contracts or driving ride shares because they cannot find that holy grail, the full-time job. To others though, it represents freedom, the ability to...

24 June, 2020 /

Was so great to speak to Manitoba Tech's Disrupted Future conference last week..I spoke about the future of work, which is scary and challenging but something we need to come to terms with now. There is lots to be optimistic about, and I think people...

03 February, 2020 /

One of the big worries regarding the future of work is that jobs are going to disappear altogether, replaced by breathtaking technology and clever robots. That is happening to an extent, but apparently some dregs are being left for humans, for better or work. 'Ghost...

03 September, 2019 /

The future of work is a huge subject, not one that can really be tackled by in a forty minute period, but we gave it a shot at the Globe and Mail's recent Future Forward conference. I was part of a panel that touched on...

09 July, 2019 /

A big misunderstanding? Uber and Lyft drivers are protesting across ten U.S. cities this week, as well as in the U.K., South America and Australia, saying that the companies are treating them unfairly. The companies say that they are a great deal for the drivers,...

09 May, 2019 /

No one is saying central bankers ever had an easy job, but at least in days gone by it used to be a bit more straightforward. If labor was in short supply wages went up and people had more money to spend and prices went...

08 May, 2019 /

I actually am a fan of the hashtag gigeconomy..in many ways it is a better way to get work done and for some workers it offers a ton of flexibility, or is at least an alternative to the traditional model of work. That said, not...

17 January, 2019 /

Coworking spaces are springing up everywhere and attracting businesses of all sizes. That is good for everything from the bottom line of large companies to the lonliness epidemic, which is actually something with economic implications. See my Globe and Mail column on the trend here    ...

20 April, 2018 /

If I had to think of an industry prone to poisonous industrial relations battles I would probably think first or the auto sector, or maybe even something like education or health. The battles in those industries, however, are apparently being matched by orchestras (can I...

18 November, 2016 /

Maybe I’m late to the party, but it was only recently that I heard the phrase ‘side hustle’. Apparently it has been around a while: way back in 2013, Entrepreneur.com tacked up an online definition, calling ‘a way to make some extra cash that allows...

13 September, 2016 /

Robots, joined by Gig Workers, are now making Twinkies, and they are doing such a good job that their parent company is going public. That’s a powerful statement about today’s manufacturing and economy, never mind our nutritional preferences. Twinkies, those flaky, cream-filled snack cakes that are...

26 July, 2016 /

Amongst the problems with the Sharing Economy – and its offshoot, the Gig Economy – is the fact that shares in it tend to be pretty unequal. In fact, even more than is the case of a usual employee-employer relationship, oftentimes the ‘employee’ in this...

25 July, 2016 /