Digital gig economy is bad for your wellbeing

The poor quality working conditions associated with the digital gig economy may have consequences for employees' wellbeing, according to new Oxford University research. The poor quality working conditions associated with the digital gig economy may have consequences for employees' wellbeing, according to new Oxford University research. The digital gig economy, defined as people who use online apps to complete gig-style work both locally and remotely, has expanded globally at a rapid and increasing rate. While public discussion often focuses on local gig work such as food delivery, surveys suggest an increasing number of people are going online to find remote gig work, such as programming and translation services. It is estimated that 70 million workers world-wide are registered on online labour platforms such as Freelancer.com and Fiverr. However, a new study conducted by researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford suggests that while the flexibility and autonomy of remote gig work may be initially appealing and benefit some people, there may be some unforeseen consequences to their well-being. 'Our findings demonstrate evidence that the autonomy of working in the gig economy often comes at the price of long, irregular and anti-social hours, which can lead to sleep deprivation and exhaustion,' says Dr Alex Wood, co-author of the paper. While gig work takes place around the world, employers tend to be from the UK and other high-income Western countries, exacerbating the problem for workers in lower-income countries who have to compensate for time differences.