Supporting both stability and flexibility is good for workers, business and society. New platforms are providing workers with the flexibility and mobility that many have wished for but not found in the traditional labor market. However, self-employed workers choosing to engage in flexible work may also encounter unforeseen work disruptions or other hardships without the protections and benefits that may be provided through full time employment. We are in agreement that flexible work should not come at the expense of desired economic security.

Source: Common ground for independent workers — Medium

The above is from an open letter titled Principles for delivering a stable and flexible safety net for all types of work. It calls for a framework initiating a conversation on taking a new look at employment and benefits as more people become self employed, working on discrete, set duration assignments and projects versus being indefinitely employed by organizations with a package of compensation and benefits.

As I discuss in my book Last Rush Hour: The Decentralization of Knowledge Work in the Twenty-First Century, the transition offers substantial benefits such as giving people more control over their professional and daily lives while affording them the freedom to both live and work in their communities rather than commuting to a centralized commute-in office located elsewhere. The primary challenge, however, is remaking the economy so that stable self employment opportunity exists for skilled, educated people versus the so-called “gig economy” wherein people attempt to patch together various forms of low income micro “gigs” that contributes to personal financial instability and impedes the economy as whole.