Sharing the economic age people's work changes do you realize that?

Uber SCM

In the drowsy afternoon, Uber out for a stroll, carrying a few nearby passengers back to the office to write, when the mood is irritable, take the other people's shopping list to buy and buy to the supermarket, when going on vacation, the vacant room uses the Airbnb to rent out ...

You may be surprised to find that the money in the coffers is more imperceptible than the pay card.

The shared economic model represented by Uber is on the way: there is no need for a fixed office, a contract without a job description, flexible working hours, and a sizeable income. It not only changes people's lives, but also changes people's work.

More flexible way of working

Uber, who started in San Francisco in 2009, was the originator of a taxi application and a typical representative of a shared economy. The biggest attraction of a shared economy is flexibility: almost anyone can participate and benefit from a rational allocation of idle resources to maximize benefits.

Many Uber drivers have another long-term job of stabilizing their income, turning Uber into an additional source of income.

Zhao Master in the Chinese Academy of Sciences is also the driver's job, his salary is not high, but work at leisure. When he was not alive, he opened the Uber near the five crossing. "Come out to stroll around 11:30 and get home by the time." When you get tired of work, you won't open, go home and sleep. ”

He says he earns about 500 yuan a week, but does not view open Uber as the main way to earn money. "I heard that someone used a taxi to open rental one months to earn 30,000 yuan, it is too tired!" I'll make a commute. "The money is small, but it makes life a lot more well-off."

And for many long-term desk mental workers, driving is a good adjustment. According to the survey, Uber drivers in the United States have a fairly high level of education, nearly half of which are college or higher (48%), much higher than the average of taxi drivers (18%) and the labour force (41%). Occasionally being a stranger's driver is a way for them to relax and socialize.

TaskRabbit
Similarly, Instacart lets you earn money while getting the satisfaction of shopping. As long as you have the latest smartphone, over 18 years old, can move 12 pounds (about 11 kg) weight above, can work on weekends and evenings, can become a member of the Instacart. When shopping in the supermarket to help the neighbors to buy and door-to-door, to receive 25 dollars per hour pay.

TaskRabbit allows people to choose the services you need through time, place, and equipment you need: moving, cleaning, finding a repairman and personal assistant to help you do something you don't want to do.

Is it possible to drive a Uber for a living?

Uber figure
Compared with the traditional taxi drivers, Uber drivers have a lower average working hours, a higher hourly rate, more security than a freelance career, and the freedom to dictate time. It looks like an ideal full-time job, but it may not be.

Full-time Open Uber Master Zhang has been in Beijing for 10 years, has been driving a black car for the industry. He complained to me that Uber driver was not good.

First of all, the Uber driver's privileges are very small. Zhang's car shelves an IPhone iphone, he said, mobile phones, network cards are provided by Uber company, can only use Uber software. In the course of driving, must use the Uber navigation system, in order to Uber backstage at any time to monitor the travel dynamics, and calculates the expense. "A single, is the software to decide." "said Master Zhang.

Secondly, the uncertainty of passengers poses great risks. Different from the taxi software Rob Single Way, Uber all use System dispatch, the driver can not select passengers. As many passengers are unfamiliar with Uber's app, Master Zhang received four orders yesterday and only made a single--there is a direct cancellation of the trip, there have been calls to say friends have come to pick up, there are registered mobile phones and people are not consistent-all these will result in a single rate of reduction, the risk of all the drivers bear.

Master Zhang also mentioned a friend's experience of the near misses. A few drunken young men were in the vicinity of a three-Li Tun, and after hundreds of meters, they crossed the route on the navigation app. The driver could not say anything but carry passengers to the destination. Fortunately, the company through the navigation software found abnormal, immediately call to inquire, after asking the cause of the driver to the corresponding compensation. Economic losses are trivial, and the greater risk is that, as Uber operations are still not entirely legal, drivers are often reluctant to report or complain when incidents occur, and the protection afforded to them by the platform is extremely limited.

In addition, Uber's income is unpredictable compared to full-time work or out of the workforce. The price strategy is completely set by the platform, the driver's income is also collected by the platform, the driver has no right to speak. Master Zhang told me, "The cost of Uber is already lower than the taxi, now is the promotion period, the promotion period after each order to receive 20% Commission, is a big number." "Yesterday, Uber Beijing announced a price reduction, a full cut of 30%, is a blessing for the driver is a curse, it is difficult to say."

Freedom and uncertainty are two sides of a livelihood through shared economic means.

Quietly changing jobs

Uber 2
While it is still not the ideal career choice, the shared economic model represented by Uber has made people's careers more diverse. As NYTimes's article says, it allows people to choose their jobs based on their own agendas, rather than getting jobs to schedule them.

Entering the era of knowledge economy, the work is more and more subdivided, the nine-to-five working system is not necessary for many jobs, often resulting in waste of time and resources, while freelancers and entrepreneurs who can fully control their time face enormous risks and pressures, and not everyone is willing to choose such a career.

The shared economic model represented by Uber is based on the intermediary platform, the core is on demand, not only reasonable allocation of resources, but also to a certain extent to control the risk.

As Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University Business School, told the New York Times Reporter: "I think we are defining a way of working that is neither full-time nor do-it-yourself." ”

In addition, under the challenge of technology development, some jobs are disappearing: Robots replace the manual labor on the assembly line, artificial intelligence can even replace the reporter to write the financial results, Instagram such a start-up company only needs more than 10 top talents to serve the world's users. The ageing of the population has led to an increase in youth unemployment to some extent.

And sharing the economy creates more jobs. Open Uber, help people shopping, and so do not need professional skills, only need some time and physical strength. The smartphone app can allocate the labor force to the most needed place through the match of time, place and skill, and maximize the resource utilization.

By the end of 2014, there had been 160,000 Uber drivers in the United States, with 40,000 new drivers signing up in December alone. Uber has become the largest provider of jobs in San Francisco.

What's your future job?

Work life balance
This is an era of uncertainty, and everyone is looking for opportunities in change. Fewer and less like fathers, only one job in a lifetime.

At the same time, people expect a wide variety of careers and change in different stages of their lives: taking care of the family, achieving the ideal, earning more money, or becoming an expert in some way ... A full-time job is difficult to meet changing and growing needs.

The lesson of shared economy is that in the future, many people may still have a full-time job of nine to five, but not all of them. Full-time work will no longer be your identity label, or your only source of income. You may also be Uber driver, Airbnb landlord, Instacarter buy hands, taskbabbit talent. With these shared economic platforms, you have the flexibility to exchange time, skills, and money, find the best way to live your life, and even make friends from different circles, and get new skills and career opportunities. In the face of uncertainty in the future, the sharing of the economy can also provide a diversified career path to withstand the potential unemployment risk.

With the increasing popularity of the shared economy, production and consumption will be closely combined, work will increasingly become a lifestyle. Master Zhao told me that he and his family would also like to sit Uber when they go out, because he can understand who will be the Uber driver, know how they have been training. Many of the tenants who lived in Airbnb during their travels returned to become Airbnb's landlords. If you like to go shopping in the supermarket instead of washing and cooking, you can find someone to help you with your laundry, to buy for others, to spend your time on something you like without the extra money you need to pay.

When work becomes a way to allocate time and resources, in the future we may be able to use a job to satisfy our hobbies, make friends through another job, and earn money with a third job. The shared economy is already changing everything.