Gigged

Sarah Kessler’s wonderful book offers unprecedented illumination of the promise, and the peril, of the gig economy by taking a deep and intimate dive into the day-to-day lives of the workers who rely on it. The resulting insights are important and often troubling.

Martin Ford, author of RISE OF THE ROBOTS

With deep reporting and graceful storytelling, Sarah Kessler reveals the ground truth of a key part of the American workforce. Her analysis is both astute and nuanced, making Gigged essential reading for anyone interested in the future of work.

Daniel H. Pink, author of WHEN and DRIVE

Gigged offers a timely and in-depth look at the promise and peril of the gig economy from one of the first journalists to recognize how big and important this new market would become . . . Sarah Kessler goes behind the statistics to tell the stories of people making a living (sometimes just scraping by) as gig economy workers. Gigged is smart, entertaining, moving, and at times even inspiring. Sarah Kessler writes like a dream. If you want to know how work is changing and how you too must change to keep up, you must read this book.

Dan Lyons, author of DISRUPTED

In this well-researched and beautifully written book, Sarah Kessler provides a very accessible but sophisticated analysis of the "gig economy". While vividly telling moving stories about individual hardships and achievements, it provides a broad perspective that helps us see the gig economy as the latest manifestation of the long-running historical struggle over power, security and risk between different classes. It is essential reading for anyone who is interested in understanding the future of our economy and society.

Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 THINGS THEY DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT CAPITALISM

A fair-minded analysis of the ever-morphing worldwide labour force

Kirkus Reviews

Kessler’s timely book explores the personal, corporate and societal stories behind a massive tech-driven shift away from permanent office-based employment.

Books of the Month, Financial Times

The workforce is changing, and Sarah Kessler is here to explain its evolution. In Gigged, she looks at the rise of the "gig economy" and what that means for not only employers and employees but the future of society.

Books of the Month, Bustle

Goes under the bonnet of the gig economy.

What CEOs Are Reading, Management Today

Well crafted . . . a multitude of anecdotes supported by data and extensive reporting.

Forbes

Engaging . . . Kessler approaches her topic with even-handedness and rigour.

Maclean’s

As well-reported, and at times as emotionally wrenching, as Amy Goldstein’s Janesville . . . In facing . . . the fraying of the social contract between employer and employee, Sarah Kessler's work in Gigged makes one thing increasingly clear: we must get busy building a new one that benefits all sides of that relationship, and the society around it.

Editor’s Choice, 800 CEO Read

Sarah Kessler has a good claim to have been there at the beginning of a truly revolutionary moment: the start of the thing we now call the gig economy . . . Gigged does a valuable service in tracking the twists and turns of the workers of the gig economy.

City AM

Kessler illuminates a great divide: For people with desirable skills, the gig economy often permits a more engaging, entrepreneurial lifestyle; but for the unskilled who turn to such work out of necessity, it’s merely ‘the best of bad options.’

Harvard Business Review

Silicon Valley is turning work into a frictionless transaction between buyer and seller, says the author of this provocative new volume . . . Read it because the gig economy affects everyone – employers, employees and consumers.

Book of the Month, Harper’s Bazaar

Alongside her intimate portraits of these workers’ lives, Kessler picks apart the founding mythology of the gig economy . . . Kessler’s book makes it more clear than ever that some solution to the fragmenting of traditional employment is direly needed.

UnHerd

Brilliantly in-depth not only in the explanations of the gig economy, but in the narratives of people who work gigs as well.

Washington Times

Argued convincingly

Fortune

A deep look at . . . our "civilization based on work" – and what’s so often unsatisfying about living in it.

Washington Post

Kessler’s recent book Gigged is all about [the] desire for independence . . . Kessler investigates the liberating ethos and terrible trade-offs of this new economy by following several people working in such positions. She discovers why the revolution in "independent contractor" work – which comes without guarantees for minimum wages, paid vacation, or health benefits – is paradise for one slice of the population, but has been disappointing, and in some cases devastating, for others.

Quartz

A clear-eyed and illuminating book.

San Francisco Chronicle

What does working in the new "gig economy" of flexibility combined with insecurity feel like? This excellent book by the journalist Sarah Kessler will help those who have no experience of this way of earning a living appreciate the answer. This new labour market offers a measure of freedom and opportunity. But it also does not allow people to make the plans they need if they are to lead a fulfilled life. Reform must come.

Martin Wolf, Books of the Year, Financial Times

For those interested in inquiries into modern (and future) work, there’s Gigged by Sarah Kessler, an analysis of the gig economy.

Books of the Year, Buzzfeed News

Looks at the potential of the gig economy and ultimately the problems it bears.

Books of the Year, Fast Company