Sarah Kessler

What does working in the new “gig economy” of flexibility combined with insecurity feel like? This excellent book by the journalist Sarah Kessler will help those who have no experience of this way of earning a living appreciate the answer. This new labour market offers a measure of freedom and opportunity. But it also does not allow people to make the plans they need if they are to lead a fulfilled life. Reform must come.

Sarah Kessler’s wonderful book offers unprecedented illumination of the promise, and the peril, of the gig economy by taking a deep and intimate dive into the day-to-day lives of the workers who rely on it. The resulting insights are important and often troubling.

Martin Ford, author of RISE OF THE ROBOTS

With deep reporting and graceful storytelling, Sarah Kessler reveals the ground truth of a key part of the American workforce. Her analysis is both astute and nuanced, making Gigged essential reading for anyone interested in the future of work.

In this well-researched and beautifully written book, Sarah Kessler provides a very accessible but sophisticated analysis of the “gig economy”. While vividly telling moving stories about individual hardships and achievements, it provides a broad perspective that helps us see the gig economy as the latest manifestation of the long-running historical struggle over power, security and risk between different classes. It is essential reading for anyone who is interested in understanding the future of our economy and society.

Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 THINGS THEY DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT CAPITALISM

Kessler illuminates a great divide: For people with desirable skills, the gig economy often permits a more engaging, entrepreneurial lifestyle; but for the unskilled who turn to such work out of necessity, it’s merely ‘the best of bad options.’

Kessler’s timely book explores the personal, corporate and societal stories behind a massive tech-driven shift away from permanent office-based employment.

Silicon Valley is turning work into a frictionless transaction between buyer and seller, says the author of this provocative new volume . . . Read it because the gig economy affects everyone – employers, employees and consumers.

A clear-eyed and illuminating book.

Gigged offers a timely and in-depth look at the promise and peril of the gig economy from one of the first journalists to recognize how big and important this new market would become . . . Sarah Kessler goes behind the statistics to tell the stories of people making a living (sometimes just scraping by) as gig economy workers. Gigged is smart, entertaining, moving, and at times even inspiring. Sarah Kessler writes like a dream. If you want to know how work is changing and how you too must change to keep up, you must read this book.

A deep look at . . . our “civilization based on work” – and what’s so often unsatisfying about living in it.

A fair-minded analysis of the ever-morphing worldwide labour force

Sarah Kessler has a good claim to have been there at the beginning of a truly revolutionary moment: the start of the thing we now call the gig economy . . . Gigged does a valuable service in tracking the twists and turns of the workers of the gig economy.

Well crafted . . . a multitude of anecdotes supported by data and extensive reporting.

The workforce is changing, and Sarah Kessler is here to explain its evolution. In Gigged, she looks at the rise of the “gig economy” and what that means for not only employers and employees but the future of society.

Alongside her intimate portraits of these workers’ lives, Kessler picks apart the founding mythology of the gig economy . . . Kessler’s book makes it more clear than ever that some solution to the fragmenting of traditional employment is direly needed.

Engaging . . . Kessler approaches her topic with even-handedness and rigour.

Brilliantly in-depth not only in the explanations of the gig economy, but in the narratives of people who work gigs as well.

As well-reported, and at times as emotionally wrenching, as Amy Goldstein’s Janesville . . . In facing . . . the fraying of the social contract between employer and employee, Sarah Kessler's work in Gigged makes one thing increasingly clear: we must get busy building a new one that benefits all sides of that relationship, and the society around it.

Goes under the bonnet of the gig economy.

Kessler’s recent book Gigged is all about [the] desire for independence . . . Kessler investigates the liberating ethos and terrible trade-offs of this new economy by following several people working in such positions. She discovers why the revolution in “independent contractor” work – which comes without guarantees for minimum wages, paid vacation, or health benefits – is paradise for one slice of the population, but has been disappointing, and in some cases devastating, for others.

For those interested in inquiries into modern (and future) work, there’s Gigged by Sarah Kessler, an analysis of the gig economy.

Looks at the potential of the gig economy and ultimately the problems it bears.

The Gig Economy, the End of the Job and the Future of Work

_______ 
'Excellent' Martin Wolf, Financial Times Books of the Year 
'Essential' Daniel Pink, author of Drive 
'Wonderful' Martin Ford, author of The Rise of the Robots 
_______ 
 
Profit. Innovation. Greed. 
Welcome to the gig economy. 
 
Between Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts, freelance jobs are becoming an increasingly prominent part of our economy. 
 
Gigged goes inside the Silicon Valley companies leading the way to this emerging 'gig economy'. It tells the stories of the workers - from computer programmers to online comment moderators - who are getting by in a new wave of precarious, short-term employment. And it sketches out what tomorrow's economy might look like: one where the fortunate get to work when they want, how they want, while the rest live lives of extraordinary hardship. 
 
It might just be the future of work for all of us. 
 
 
*Longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award* 
 
Praise for Gigged 
 
'Well researched and beautifully written . . . Essential reading for anyone who is interested in understanding the future of our economy and society.' Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism 
 
'Well crafted . . . a multitude of anecdotes supported by data and extensive reporting.' Forbes 
 
'Kessler's timely book explores the personal, corporate and societal stories behind a massive tech-driven shift away from permanent office-based employment.' Books of the Month, Financial Times 
 
'Kessler illuminates a great divide: For people with desirable skills, the gig economy often permits a more engaging, entrepreneurial lifestyle; but for the unskilled who turn to such work out of necessity, it's merely "the best of bad options".' Harvard Business Review 
 
'Sarah Kessler writes like a dream. If you want to know how work is changing and how you too must change to keep up, you must read this book.' Dan Lyons, author of Disrupted

Sarah Kessler

Praise for Gigged

What does working in the new “gig economy” of flexibility combined with insecurity feel like? This excellent book by the journalist Sarah Kessler will help those who have no experience of this way of earning a li ...

Sarah Kessler’s wonderful book offers unprecedented illumination of the promise, and the peril, of the gig economy by taking a deep and intimate dive into the day-to-day lives of the workers who rely on it. The resu ...

With deep reporting and graceful storytelling, Sarah Kessler reveals the ground truth of a key part of the American workforce. Her analysis is both astute and nuanced, making Gigged essential reading for ...

What does working in the new “gig economy” of flexibility combined with insecurity feel like? This excellent book by the journalist Sarah Kessler will help those who have no experience of this way of earning a li ...

Sarah Kessler’s wonderful book offers unprecedented illumination of the promise, and the peril, of the gig economy by taking a deep and intimate dive into the day-to-day lives of the workers who rely on it. The resu ...

With deep reporting and graceful storytelling, Sarah Kessler reveals the ground truth of a key part of the American workforce. Her analysis is both astute and nuanced, making Gigged essential reading for ...

What does working in the new “gig economy” of flexibility combined with insecurity feel like? This excellent book by the journalist Sarah Kessler will help those who have no experience of this way of earning a li ...

Sarah Kessler’s wonderful book offers unprecedented illumination of the promise, and the peril, of the gig economy by taking a deep and intimate dive into the day-to-day lives of the workers who rely on it. The resu ...

With deep reporting and graceful storytelling, Sarah Kessler reveals the ground truth of a key part of the American workforce. Her analysis is both astute and nuanced, making Gigged essential reading for ...

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