Job Crafting Can Help Digital Gig Workers Build Resilience

Online gig work has grown increasingly common in recent years — and yet there’s still limited understanding of how to effectively support these non-traditional workers. While gig workers can benefit from greater flexibility and autonomy than traditional employees, they also face unique challenges: less job security, fewer resources for career development, and often, a strong sense of alienation and difficulty finding meaning in their work. The authors conducted a study with more than 300 digital gig workers in which they found that job crafting at both the personal and group levels can help workers cultivate resilience in the face of these challenges. Given these findings, the authors recommend that gig workers work to craft their jobs individually, but that they also proactively engage with communities that can help them develop skills, identify new opportunities, and feel more connected. They also suggest that crowd work platforms themselves take steps to foster a sense of community among their workers in order to support their job crafting efforts, and ultimately ensure a more-resilient workforce.

Read the full article here.