Along the way, I pass the quaint bistro where I will soon meet the first of my new clients. The patio, as I drive by the place, is set with wrought iron tables and flowers that glaze the outside of the establishment like an old French Café. But before that, a latte awaits a little further down the way! Once there, I order the usual and make my way over to a nice window seat table. I pull out the old laptop and notice out of the corner of my eye the steam wafting from my beverage which always gives me such a good feeling. While waiting for things to boot up, I sip my drink slowly and eventually begin taking a few notes, enjoying the subtle and gentle tapping of the keys that mingle with the low-hum sounds of the coffee shop. It is quite the image, but not necessarily the reality.

As I remember the term “gig,” I am reminded of its emergence from the 20th-century Jazz era as slang for "landing a single performance" in perhaps a jazz club. The term, however, has taken on new meaning over the years. Sociologically, the duality of patterning inherent to human language allows for the adoption of new meanings in the evolution of a word. As such, today, the word “gig” is also applicable to short-term or temporary employment across a span of industries where one may seek work, bid on contracts, and ultimately complete the work that was contracted. All this amidst attempting to form, sustain, or disband professional relationships in tandem.

The term “Gig-worker” or “Gigger” has also been used by media to describe one of the prominent seminal events in our culture today, which is the advent of a new way of working and living in what has been referred to as the “Gig Economy (Kuhn, 2016).” The gig economy, as defined by McKinsey and Company (2023), a strategy and management consulting firm, is “the workforce where people are engaged in freelance and side-hustle work.”

To this end, the gig economy is a form of “piece-rate” pay that links pay directly to the delivery and quantity of goods produced. This was evidenced in the 1980’s and 90’s, otherwise known as the formative “pre-gig era” (Davis & Hoyt, 2020). However, in today’s digital platform era, such delivery transcends what we used to think of as “material goods” produced, where effort and now quality of goods are highly relevant to the hiring of a “gig-worker” or freelancer (Ashford et al. 2018).

Gigging has tremendous variation and dimension to it, such as context, which determines quite a bit – especially for those who are highly skilled versus lower-skilled gig workers who must survive by patching work assignments together. This varying “lay of the land” context is further driven by temporal, physical, and business attachments to organizations (Spreitzer et.al., 2017). Although some independent contractors may have a high degree of flexibility, others are at the mercy of those who employ them or the proximity of time between the next actual "paying" gig (Barley & Kunda, 2006). Gigging may take many forms of process such as ride-hailing or delivery driving [think Uber, Lyft or Doordash] to online development and content creation where a gig worker might use services like Guru.com and Fiverr.com to gain contractual work.