Surviving Empty Nest

Lisa (not her real name), is a young mother who drives for an e-hailing company after dropping her kids off in school. And come the school dismissal time, while she waits near the school, she sources for customers for her insurance business over social media and when she reaches home after picking her kids up, she bakes pastries to be distributed to a few bakeries in her neighbourhood. Her pastries are picked up by Eddy (not his real name) and sent to those bakeries, right before he starts his shift as food delivery person after completing a full day’s work at the office. Welcome to the gig economy, ladies and gentlemen! According to cnbc.com, there are about 60 million gig workers in the United States and by 2027 it is expected that majority of US workers will be contract workers. This has been attributed to the rise in the block chain system, usage for more and more contract employees for optimum output by large corporations, the advent of Internet of Things which facilitates re...

Yeah, folks, I am talking about the strike by Food Panda riders, which had started from Monday. I, for one, actually felt the bite because during the days when I work on producing stocks for Bollywood Begum, I would order my dinner as soon as I reach home. Not to mention the motorcycles of Food Panda riders parked at the entrance to the lift lobby at my condo - that sorts of reminds me to place my order - what a sinister campaign by the food delivery company 😃. However, from Monday, I did not see even one Food Panda rider around. Everyone is on strike. Even those who had not planned to join the strike may have had to do so because of peer pressure because food delivery is indeed a `peer business'. You survive by relying on tips and information that you get from your peers. That is how the business is designed - just like taxi drivers, e-hailing drivers - you need to network to survive, like it or not.  So, the riders are off the road. The claim was that the company had cut ...