Nowadays it seems as though every future of work conversation is about the gig economy and open talent platform work. For some, this represents an amazing future of freedom, choice, flexibility and opportunity. For many others it represents a frightful mix of unstable employment and uncertain incomes. The voice that is missing from many of these debates is that of the workers themselves, the freelancers.
Free Trade Europa took it upon themselves to conduct a comprehensive survey targeted directly at the independent worker and have released a new future of work study, The Voice of the Freelancers. The study is based on survey results and interviews with thousands of freelancers. The aim was to collect first-hand data and thereby create the first comprehensive study of gig work and earnings. Although this report focused on Europe, the findings hold ground for freelancers around the globe.
During this CTW meeting, Free Trade Europa Founder and CEO, Glen Hodgson presented the findings and open the topic up for an interactive community conversation.
To join the community that is transforming work, register for a free CTW membership here and a calendar invites will follow.
Direct link to video recording is here.
Chat room transcript:
00:14:51 Chris “Link” Duarte: We are a fun crowd 🙂
00:15:03 Chris “Link” Duarte: Hi John H!!
00:15:43 Bondili, Balaji: @Tyles Weiss you should connect with Melisa Liberman.
00:17:12 CTW: As always, please drop your contact info, links, etc in the chat which we share after the call!
00:17:13 Nelly Tacheva, TANGRA & Simply Flows: Happy to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelly-tacheva/
00:17:17 Carin-Isabel Knoop: of course we know Danaher!! great company!
00:17:21 Arthur Ransier: Allen!!
00:17:30 Arthur Ransier: Great to see you
00:17:51 Allen Chilson – Danaher: Thanks Arthur. Same!
00:18:29 Maryse Williams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryselevywilliams/
00:19:19 Todd Brous | distillet: @Danny: WOW!
00:19:25 Chris “Link” Duarte: Maryse!!! SO good to see you here! Make sure you raise your hand and tell everyone about Job Morph!!
00:19:26 hannahyoung: My Linkedin – would love to connect with some new peeps 🙂 https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-young1/
00:19:36 Chuck Hamilton: Is Virtual native ten years or more at doing it. Then I’m a native??
00:20:09 Carin-Isabel Knoop: Maxine — how logical for you to be here — should have invited you two years ago! ;-(
00:20:27 Eryn Peters: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erynpeters/ would love to connect with you all!
00:20:33 Allen Chilson – Danaher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenchilson/
00:20:34 Chris “Link” Duarte: Carin, Maxine is wonderful!! You two should def talk!!!!
00:20:45 Victoria: www.linkedin.com/in/victoriajdarling
00:20:46 Paul Mikhaylenko: Hello everyone! Paul here, https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmikhay/ founder of https://bloom.io/ (a business suite for freelancers)
00:20:47 Maxine Cunningham: https://www.pickmybrain.world/profiles/maxine-cunningham
00:21:10 Maxine Cunningham: Haha never to late Carin! Let’s catch back up. ❤️
00:21:20 Laura K. Wise: Hi All — Glad to be here! https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurakwise/
00:21:22 Elizabeth Eiss: Elizabeth Eiss, Founder & CEO ResultsResourcing eeiss@resultsresourcing.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabetheiss/ THE freelance platform that comes with your own recruiter
00:21:22 Danny Done: https://gobekli.io/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielarthurdone
00:21:47 David Messinger: Why not go for the king and queen!
00:22:00 Carin-Isabel Knoop: @chris — met Maxine july 2020…
00:22:44 CTW: Balaji Bondili: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balajibondili/
00:23:04 Maxine Cunningham: All the Brains: https://www.pickmybrain.world/browse-our-brains
Would dream of building a knowledge marketplace for this group so we could all book each other’s brains. And the world could book ours. We need to share more visions of the future of work!
00:23:09 Chuck Hamilton: Chuck is at linkedin.com/in/chuck-hamilton-951483
00:23:14 CTW: Steve King: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveking2/
00:24:01 Weiss, Tyler: Tyler Weiss (Deloitte) https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-weiss-781a8b50/
00:24:44 Chuck Hamilton: Can someone post a link to this story?
00:26:02 Chris “Link” Duarte: It doesn’t effect their bottom line so why put their neck out?
00:26:21 Wolfe, Kelly: Kelly Wolfe (Deloitte) https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-wolfe9/
00:26:39 CTW: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-biden-labor-rule-would-make-contractors-into-employees-2022-10-11/
00:27:01 Chris “Link” Duarte: I see it as merely “lip service” when platforms say they are for freelance “community” but then do not listen to what their freelancers actually need
00:27:15 Caroline Ayoub – Khibraty: Hey all, here is Caroline Ayoub, and I am the co-founder of Khibraty, a senior and executive talent platform that connects business leaders to a network of independent consultants for projects in the Middle East https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolineayoub/ happy to be hear as always 🙂
00:28:49 CTW: Arthur Ransier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ransierarthur/
00:29:19 sheila mahoney: @arthur- CWI is awesome! LifeSciHub is a member
00:29:48 Chris “Link” Duarte: Let’s say that a platform that hires freelancers is naïve about what’s happening- in 30 seconds, what is the problem that we hope they jump on board with solving?
00:30:30 CTW: Glen Hodgson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glen-hodgson-36136516/
00:30:31 Bondili, Balaji: Give freelancers freedom from anxiety that their life as a freelance isn’t at risk.
00:30:48 Chris “Link” Duarte: Balaji +1
00:31:18 Bryan Pena: Fear and Anxiety Drives Clicks.
00:31:23 John Healy: It’s a good point @Balaji…and if the freelancing platforms are uncomfortable making statements, maybe we at CTW should!
00:32:03 Carin-Isabel Knoop: this is also a political play — the democrats take silicon valley money but need labor votes, ergo the timing …
00:33:24 Chris “Link” Duarte: John +1, we need to gather the troops around hearing the voices of freelancers so that the platforms can carry their voice as a “non-partisan” position- platforms could report up what they are hearing from the workers. Give freelancers back their power of their voice
00:33:44 Bondili, Balaji: @Carin – Good to see you! Yes, it is. But, if it is creating fear among people. Someone needs to reassure with the seeming sentiment that it doesn’t really matter.
00:34:06 Bondili, Balaji: @John Healy – CTW should put out a statement for sure.
00:34:07 Ashley, UntapSocial: @Link +1
00:37:46 Chris “Link” Duarte: I am glad to see that their are people that are “older” participating because they have so much knowledge to offer and the younger talent has knowledge of leveraging tech- there is an opportunity here to build in mentoring and using “talent matching” to build on skills both young and old
00:38:37 Maxine Cunningham: Share knowledge, get paid.
Can I buy someone’s thought leadership for 1 year? No work… just thoughts. Not the easiest to buy yet…. but could be.
Freelancing is so attached to gigs. But why not thinking?
Agree 100% Chris. Mentoring should have its own sector in the economy.
00:38:39 Carin-Isabel Knoop: what are tax levels like in europe vs us on freelance income?
00:38:58 Chris “Link” Duarte: I was hoping to see higher in the over 5K earnings
00:39:25 Chuck Hamilton: @link – I guess I’m one of those older people 🙂
00:40:06 Todd Brous | distillet: Of the people who “have enough $ to pay their bills“, what % are NOT full-time employees? (Ie gig-only?)
00:40:10 Chris “Link” Duarte: and Chuck you are amazing and taught me so much an the small amount of time weve spent together! We need more of you in this community!!!
00:41:27 Allen Chilson – Danaher: great question Todd!!
00:41:52 Todd Brous | distillet: How does “useful for acquiring new skills” compare to FTE respondents?
00:43:13 Chris “Link” Duarte: Yes! They have freedom to explore! This part is amazing but its hard to manage time and grow additional skills. Most are “hustling” to make ends meat and do not have the time to explore upskilling- we need to see people being rewarded for tenure, experience, and level of knowledge- match the person not the job
00:45:14 Todd Brous | distillet: Im a Man over 40 and. I would love to lose belly fat!
00:45:19 Emily K: lol!
00:45:23 Chris “Link” Duarte: Amazing!
00:45:26 Nelly Tacheva: 😂
00:47:03 Emily K: freelancer strategy for a fluid workforce…
00:47:26 Chris “Link” Duarte: All signs point to YES with the freedom, flexibility etc. Now we need to help people upskill and learn to effectively manage their time, the tools, etc to enable their success and higher earnings! Great report Glen!
00:49:29 Torsten Kriedt – Solesa Venture Services: @Glen, how can we help to educate and influence ?
00:49:30 Emily K: Yes to all Chris, second the motion ^
00:49:44 Chris “Link” Duarte: 🙂
00:50:43 Steve Rader: In the past, labor unions used to be the force “for workers” and now we have political tension between those in that old model vs the new freelance/gig workders…. they are all workers and I’m wondering if anyone is reaching out to educate labor union leaders on the new trends … just a thought…
00:51:27 Steve Rader: It just seems that unions are now just fighting for full time workers.
00:51:38 Chris “Link” Duarte: If anyone is interested in joining our monthly call here at CTW that is all around advocacy for the freelance voice, please connect with me. If you have a burning passion to lift the voices of freelancers, let’s talk! https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkdreams/
00:51:45 Emily K: Excellent idea Steve – if it hasn’t happened yet, it should.
00:51:51 John Healy: India’s approach seems to be gaining momentum…
00:51:53 Arthur Ransier: Steve — I’ve had several productive conversations. Part of the challenge comes back to $$$$$$… Unions manage massive funds for self-insured healthcare plans. Decoupling health insurance from employment would make the conversation considerably less-challenging.
00:52:09 Steve Rader: @Arthur +1
00:53:45 Arthur Ransier: Unions offer an incredible service (apprenticeships) to those without the access/resources to go down a meaningful career pathway. That said, there are some Unions which don’t have training programs — and are therefore offering less to society
00:57:38 Allen Chilson – Danaher: When I went through Outplacement with Lee Hecht 5+ years ago, they had an “entrepreneurial” support track in addition to traditional job search support – so I think they were starting that ‘pivot’ towards providing that guidance that Maryse was just mentioning.
00:57:52 Maxine Cunningham: Are we starting to use:
Knowledge worker?
00:58:39 Chris “Link” Duarte: Maxine- I have a vocab list that has about 30 different titles that “open talent” uses to identify themselves
00:58:43 Ashley, UntapSocial: In my immediate circles, anecdotally, I’d say 50% of the people I know who “freelance” do it on the side, and also have full-time jobs.
00:59:42 Steve King: Good article today in PWC’s Strategy and Business on talent platforms – https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Why-financial-services-companies-should-set-up-their-own-talent-exchanges
01:00:01 Chris “Link” Duarte: Ashley +1 and those same people also say they wish they could do their side hustle full time 🙂
01:00:07 Emily K: Same here Ashley a lot of people still seeing their freelance work as a side hustle – I know someone who is intentionally working M-Th (40 hrs) plus freelancing/consulting on Fridays.
01:00:29 Ashley, UntapSocial: @Emily K @Link +1
01:00:36 Chris “Link” Duarte: Emily +1
01:00:47 Maxine Cunningham: Chris would love to see that list!
01:01:08 Torsten Kriedt – Solesa Venture Services: there are still too many employment contracts that are worded so prohibitively that employees think that they are not allowed to do anything on the side even if not at all related to non-compete
01:01:18 Steve Rader: I’ll say it again… I think that in 15 years, we’ll look back and wonder how we thought it was OK for Companies to effectively “own” employees.
01:01:53 Emily K: Steve, absolutely…
01:02:46 Steve Rader: and… why we thought it was ever a good idea to bundle insurance and savings programs to employment…
01:02:58 Emily K: Fascinating to consider how Gen Z will shape the conversation on this too.
01:03:12 Chris “Link” Duarte: Independent Contractor Outsourced Services Worker Management Consultant Freelancer Nomad Promad Consultant Independent Contractor 1099 Worker W-2 Worker Gig worker She Session Worker Featured Worker Job Seeker Career Seeker Dual Classing Transient Worker Cafe Worker Temporary Contractor Road Warrior
01:03:14 Steve Rader: @Emily +1
01:03:23 Shawn Fields – Field Nation: Has anybody looked at the SIA Lexicon?
01:03:26 Chris “Link” Duarte: And there are more….
01:03:48 Arthur Ransier: @Shawn — SIA’s lexicon needs some work, in regard to open talent
01:04:05 Steve Rader: Amanda Friek is awesome!
01:04:23 Chuck Hamilton: where do we sign up?
01:04:28 Maxine Cunningham: Thanks Link!
01:04:29 Bondili, Balaji: Can we have a panel discussion with freelancers?
01:04:32 Melisa Liberman: Link +Independent Consultant
01:04:43 Emily K: Can you share this/circulate via email (if haven’t already)?
01:04:47 Shawn Fields – Field Nation: Agreed – but I was just thinking it might be a start…
01:04:50 Emily K: Or resend
01:05:46 Glen Hodgson: download it: https://freetradeeuropa.eu/future-of-work-study-2022
01:05:58 CTW: All of this will be shared at the CTW site within the next 24 hours.
01:06:08 Emily K: this is a fantastic community – thank you all!
