Decent work and meaningful work: insights from gig work

Platforms' global reach and algorithmic controls give rise to opportunities as well as structural hurdles to decent work that we look at here as an important path toward experiencing meaningful work. Decent work entails a safe working environment, reasonable working hours and compensation, access to healthcare, and fair representation to which all employees are entitled. In turn, meaningful work is a subjective experience where work has significance and positive meaning. This chapter analyses gig working conditions along the axis of and relations between decent work and meaningful work. Typical gig work (such as food delivery, ride-hailing, and MTurk tasks) is subject to platform management and algorithmic controls; in addition, workers' limited work experience and skills, and thus dependency on platforms, renders gig work falling short of decent work conditions. Though uncommon, gig work can be meaningful if it pays the bills and, at the same time, offers opportunities for personal and professional improvement, making moral and social contributions. We suggest that while some gig workers exhibit cognitive strategies to cope with exploitative work conditions, for gig work to be sustainably decent and meaningful, it will require more collaborative online communities and targeted state and institutional regulations, encouraging and holding platforms accountable.