Can Full-Time Tech Workers Survive the Gig Economy? (dice.com)

Nerval's Lobster writes: By some measures, more than 40 percent of U.S. workers will be independent in 2020. Today, that number stands at 34 percent, according to the Freelancer's Union. By all accounts, the trend seems widespread enough to indicate that tech pros should prepare themselves for the dynamics of a world that depends more on contingent work. The question isn't whether the tech world will see an increasing prevalence of 'gigs,' rather than full-time positions; it's whether those in full-time positions can easily keep their jobs when there's pressure to farm it out cheaply and easily to freelancers. Or will the need for people who can see projects through the long term prevent the 'gig economy' from radically changing the tech industry?

Comments

Re:Look at the bean counters for your answer

[rubycodez]

a big correction is coming, outsourcing mission critical systems can end very badly, especially if it involves countries with huge black markets for stolen data with no real legal venue to pursue. yeah India is prime example of what I'm talking about, and if you farm out to any former soviet country their mafias will make a killing on your data too (as aside sometimes that's not a pun)

Yeah...

[koan]

%40 I don't think so...

I guess I've read too many political articles and everything now smells like an ad, a conspiracy or outright propaganda.

"Carolyn Ockels: Carolyn is the Managing Partner at Emergent Research. Carolyn's current research and consulting is focused on economic decentralization"

Focused...

Dice "insights"

[grimmjeeper]

The article seemed to be far fetched. It all made sense when I looked up and saw that it's just another idiotic dice "insights" spam.

Re:Look at the bean counters for your answer

[Anonymous Coward]

The beancounter is the one doing the outsourcing though. You really think that they're going to sack themselves? More likely they'll give themselves a nice big bonus for all the "efficiencies" they've achieved, then retire early before the company tanks as a result of all the people who actually make/understand the product vanishing.

Re:Look at the bean counters for your answer

[Darinbob]

It's not just about security though. Outsourcing does not give you workers who care about your company. Their transients, a few bugs won't bother them. A security hole isn't worth patching. Billable hours is the only thing that will matter. Your company is trying to make something new and unique and the guy at the other end of the phone says "yes, sure, we can do that, we're the expert in that!" and then 24 months later they've vanished and you've got nothing to show for it.

Then the workers will want to start standardizing so that they can migrate their jobs more easily, requesting that certificates take the place of interviews and evaluations.

Even the blind hog

[rsilvergun]

finds the acorn now and then (and yes, I know Hogs hunt by smell, it's an expression, roll with it).

They're probably trying to dance around the real issue, which is that there isn't going to be enough work for all us tech workers. With all the outsourcing and H1-Bs and what have you. That plus the "Gig Economy" is a fancy way to say companies don't want to pay for benefits, paid leave and pay raises. It's basically a massive pay cut on a scale that I don't think has ever happened. You don't really want to bring that up because if you think you're having a hard time swallowing these "insights" imagine what accepting the brutal reality of the "Gig Economy" is like...

Re:Look at the bean counters for your answer

[khasim]

I have to explain that to people all the time.

To an employee, you are a paycheck / insurance / vacation-time / etc. If they fuck up they have to go through the interview process to replace those items. And it is in their best interest to do the job correctly so they don't have to deal with the problems or the hassle of interviewing.

To a contractor, you are billable hours. If they fuck up they have to find replacement billable hours. That's it. They don't care whether it works right because they can charge to fix it. Again. And again. If they find a customer who pays better, you'll be on your own. Unless you want to cough up more money.

Re:Look at the bean counters for your answer

[ranton]

After spending time as both a full time employee (FTE) and consultant, I find the dynamic can quite often be the opposite of what you describe.

To an employee, you are a paycheck / insurance / vacation-time /etc. If they do a great job they will get the same paycheck as if they do a mediocre job. Maybe they will get an extra 1% raise. As long as they don't royally fuck up, they will not get fired. As Peter Gibbons put it, an employee relationship will "only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired."

To a contractor, you are a gold mine. They can make enough in 4-5 months to match what an FTE gets in a year, even counting benefits. And their ability to get more of these gigs in the future is mostly dependent on making each client happy. If they do a great job, instead of a 1% raise they get another 1000 billable hours at $225 each. This is quite the motivation to do a great job.

Both your scenario and my scenario happen. Finding a great employee and a great consultant are both rare and incredibly valuable.