02

A Study on Work Life Integration of GIG Workers

Dr. Ramar Veluchamy1, Pratulya Reddy2,
Ragini Pillai2, Rashmi Singh2
1
Assistant Professor, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship,
Bangalore, Karnataka
2
Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore, Karnataka.
E-mail Id: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract
We aim to gain insights into the output of gig employees, their
efficiency and work life balance. In a developing country like
India, the majority of employees rely on the gig structure to earn
their livelihood, where unemployment is a major problem. Even
if this job structure helps to curb a nation's unemployment, it is
equally important to have an opinion from the workers' point of
view on such a structure and its sustainability. A crucial element
in identifying the key determinants of gig workers' performance
is psychological needs. This is an abstract; we hope to explain
how the performance of gig employees is affected by multiple
factors. Under this conceptual framework, the study of assessing
success compares the degree of job security with that of
motivation, which can contribute to work-life balance and
increased effectiveness. The research concentrates on assessing
the effectiveness of gig employees specifically for the food and
courier industries, such as Swiggy and amazon delivery,
analyzing different factors influencing productivity. We
generalized the sample we have taken to the entire population in
this area with the help of focus group interviews. Data is
obtained by the researcher using the primary process. We found
that productivity is not impaired and it is not impacted by the
variables we considered for analysis. Satisfaction level is
influenced by the flexible working hours and the fact that they
need not report to someone in the company. If the two variables
mentioned above are taken into account, then the degree of
satisfaction of the gig job increases. All of the other factors may
not have any effect on the gig worker's work life balance.

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 Keywords: Work Life Balance, Gig Economy Workers, Job
Stress and Work Life, Work Time Commitment.

Introduction
Due to technological advancement, increasing demand for flexible work
and unemployment, there has been a drastic change in the job structure all
over the world. Gig economy is emerged which is challenging the
conventional labor market. There are numerous benefits associated with
this, both from the employer and workers’ perspective. Some of the
benefits include fluid human capital, wider access to talent, increased
productivity, and cost cutting from employers’ perspective. For employees
the gig economy provides them with flexibility in working on multiple
projects simultaneously, independence and freedom to choose when and
where to work, and can earn more with multiple projects. Apart from the
above benefits, curbing unemployment has been one of the major focus
areas of the gig economy. Gig economy represents a wide variety of jobs
like baby-sitter, musicians, truck drivers, artist, food delivery person,
freelancer programmers etc. There are some problems associated with it
also which includes uncertainty, workers being unreceptive to corporate
culture, workers’ compensation and protection, irregular working hours
and lack of social contact. The paper focuses on determining the success
of Gig workers by studying various variables and its effect on the outcome
i.e., productivity. In this paper we will cover the food and courier delivery
industry such as Swiggy, Zomato, amazon delivery. The research done till
now in the context of gig economy has talked upon what is gig economy,
benefits associated for the workers in the gig economy as well as for the
employers and the negative effect of this new job structure. Research gap
directs to gain insights on the success of gig workers, their productivity
and work life balance. Till now there has been no framework to look into
how exactly the gig workers consider themselves to be successful.
Majority of the workers in a developing country like India depend on the
gig structure to earn their livelihood, where unemployment is a major
problem. Even if this job structure helps in curbing the unemployment of a
nation, it is equally important to have an opinion about such structure and
its sustainability from the workers’ point of view.
Literature Review
The regular 9 to 5 jobs are not the only way to do a job. There is a growth
in the number of workers doing the jobs in the time they want. Over the
past decade, the growth of information technology platforms has

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intensified this trend dramatically. After the financial crisis in 2008, the
new set of workers involved in non-traditional employment. This type of
employment fall under the category gig economy or sharing economy
where the workers use the online platforms Ola, Uber, Swiggy, Airbnb to
apply for short term jobs with the clients (Devinatz, 2019). Individuals
worked in the gig economy has increased considerably which has led to
the increase in the demand of co-working space-a set up where
professional freelancers work on their individual projects at a common
place. As more and more people realize the benefits of working
independently, the gig economy will influence the current job structure in
the long run. The work can be classified into two types-one that is
transacted via apps but delivered locally which involves workers physical
presence example amazon delivery person and the second where work is
both transacted and delivered via apps example a freelancer software
programmer. Apart from increasing greater participation of the workforce,
freelancing also increases productivity. There are various benefits
associated with this type of gig economy job structure. Recruiting a
freelancer takes 2.7 days, whereas traditional recruitment method takes at
least 34 days. (Milbourn, 2015). One of the most important characteristics
of freelancing is that companies have wider access to talent across the
globe. Organizations nowadays require employees with special skill sets,
expertise and exceptional talent and workers need a platform to showcase
the same, thus gig economy provides the correct match between the two.
(Thrasyvoulou, 2015). Gig economy resulted in changing the employer-
employee relationship as the customer-freelancer relationship. They need
to please clients to retain the contract. Gig workers are beneficial in many
sectors, however they are more beneficial to SME’s who have increased
access to these workers. It also helps the disabled people who cannot work
in a traditional employment structure by providing digital platforms to
work and earn money which was practically impossible earlier. It also
helps in matching labor to peak periods-there may be times when
customer demand is high and therefore a higher volume of labor is
needed. Also there is a higher scope of innovation when gig workers are
concerned unlike permanent workers where job security makes them
complacent and it may be detrimental to innovation and productivity both.
Study on the quality of remote gig work remains small, both in terms of
the number of studies carried out and in terms of the range of platforms
and countries examined. Income, health, autonomy and power over work
habits, hours and social interaction are some of the significant
characteristics considered by gig employees for job quality in both high,
low and middle income countries. Major contributor is low pay which
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means high ratio of unpaid work to paid labor and lack of available work
(Wood et al. 2018). 70 percent of Australians less than age 34 are
interested to use online portals to find jobs. (AiGroups, 2016).
While gig workers have clear control over where they work, they may
have to work from home, leading to a lack of social interaction and
intense hours of unsocial and erratic work. Small percentage of people are
making lots of money via side hustles (example renting out on Airbnb),
whereas people associated with Uber do not have any insurance benefits,
compensation policies, retirement benefits. Some people also join gig
because of financial constraint and hence cannot be too selective. The
other problem with the gig economy is workers being unreceptive to
corporate culture and lack of understanding of legal or regulatory
framework of business. The rise of gig employment threatens our system
of income security where social insurance is provided through
employment in traditional jobs. Free to market their labor generally, some
old and lettered freelance contractors have high earnings as freelance
contractors. Most gig staff earn but their equally educated counterparts on
ancient contracts; and younger and fewer educated staff do a lot of worse
in different written agreement arrangements. corporations rent gig staff to
lower labor prices, particularly edges, and gig staff earn considerably but
different staff, particularly once account is taken of advantages. once
businesses increase hours of employment for contingent and gig staff, or
once gig staff shift from portfolio development to paid market work,
production will increase quicker throughout trade cycle upswings than
will reported employment. (Friedman, 2014). During a study of Uber
drivers at intervals the US, Hall and Krueger (2015) found that quite
eighty percent were already used before amendment of integrity Uber.
This implies that, for most, gig work could also be a supplementary
activity done on associate irregular basis to ‘smooth’ fluctuations in their
primary earnings. Depictions of platform work as a replacement wave of
likelihood for the laid-off might thus be usurious. Ultimately, those
wanting to participate at intervals the gig economy have to be compelled
to be compelled to satisfy positive standards (e.g., having a clean, late-
model car) and master positive skills (e.g., social skills, to elicit favorable
shopper ratings). There is nothing to counsel that these talent and capital
wants are radically entirely totally different from those required at
intervals the thought economy. Thus, whereas the gig economy might
modify some workers to swish their volatile incomes, it's unlikely (on its
own) to help large numbers of jobseekers World Health Organization face
totally different important barriers to going in employment (Healy,

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Nicholson, Pekarek, 2017). In geographically circumscribed labor
markets, because of discrimination or activity segregation, some
components of the population could also be excluded from the market or
one among its segments entirely. Workers could also be discriminated
against, as an example, on the idea of faith, quality or incapacity (Reskin,
2000), or divided into sure market segments on the idea of gender or
quality (Reskin, 2000). (Maume, 1999). Any of those dynamics will on
paper be changed in 2 ways that by digital labor platforms. Second,
whether or not there's less prejudice or segregation, they will encourage
workers to enter geographically distant markets. Secondly, through a veil
of namelessness offered by the digital medium, they will encourage
workers to enter their native market, masking the characteristics on the
idea of that discrimination takes place. Findings have shown the
advantages of digital labor as associate instrument for economic process.
In their native contexts, governments like Nigeria, Malaysia and therefore
the Philippines and enormous organizations like the globe Bank are more
and more seeing digital labor as a tool to assist a number of the world’s
poorest avoid restricted economic process opportunities (Graham, Hjorth,
Leh). The gig economy is that the direct results of political economy
forces like economic process, outsourcing and technology. A big
proportion of workers feel unhappy with their current roles and it leads to
unproductivity and lack of innovation. A survey from a McKinsey report
on the impact of digital platforms on the labor market revealed that 37 per
cent of global survey respondents cited being in jobs that underutilize their
skills, resulting in a gross loss of productivity. Creation of the gig
economy has led to more innovative and creative jobs. People are divided
into two groups, those who have time but no money and those who have
money but no time. The freelance economy connects the gap between
these two and provides them with mutual benefits. Online platforms help
workers to undertake any task worldwide as a result of which workers
have many more options to choose from according to their area of interest
and comfort. The other important concern in the labor market is the work
life balance. Gig workers have greater autonomy and flexibility and hence
they have a better work life balance compared to traditional workers.

Research Methodology
Primary data collection technique in the form of focused interview is
preferable for our study in which we will talk to our respondents i.e.
workers to get first-hand information about their satisfaction and work life
balance. Qualitative and quantitative data are used to measure the relation
between inputs and outputs which are required to arrive at a relation
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between them in order to achieve preferred outcomes. Qualitative data
will help us in increasing our understanding of the topic and quantitative
data will help in measuring the same. In this case Age, Income, working
hours are continuous variables whereas education level, gender, health
condition of worker, languages known, tech savvy, marital status are
categorical variables which are to be binned and converted to dummy
variables. The output variables are earnings and work life balance. First,
we have identified the target population as Bangalore city gig workers.
The sampling frame we selected is Electronic city. We will use a
probabilistic sampling method and in that we will use random sampling to
carry out the testing process. With the help of focused group interviews
we can generalize the sample we have taken to the entire population in
this region (electronic city). Data is collected using the primary method by
the researcher. The different variables in the study are Inputs (Independent
variables (IV))-Gender, Educational level, marital status, annual
household income, monthly income, ratings, tenure of work/day. Output
(Dependent Variable (DV)) is Work-Life Balance and the Moderating
Variable is (MV)-Motivation (it may vary from person to person). Control
Variable (CV) is Social isolation. Extraneous Variable is Health. Multiple
linear regression methods is used to test the model as there are more than
one independent variable. With the help of multiple linear regression, we
find how various independent variables have an effect on our dependent
variable. Here the null hypothesis is that the independent variables we
have selected doesn’t have any relation with the target variable that is
work life balance or in other words independent variable doesn’t bring
about a change in the dependent variable. The alternate hypothesis will be
to reject the null hypothesis and show that our independent variables have
an effect on the dependent variable. In multiple linear regression we see
the coefficient of determination, Anova table to take a decision and come
to a conclusion whether to reject or not to reject the null hypothesis.
Multiple Linear Regression not necessarily state the cause and effect
between the variables but will show some association between them.
Conceptual Framework
Psychological needs is a main factor to understand the key determinants of
the success of gig workers. This being an abstract, we intend to
understand how various factors affect the success of gig workers. The
study of determining the success is set under this conceptual framework of
correlating the level of job security with that of motivation, which can
lead to work life balance and improved efficiency.

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 Gender Work-Life Integration
Education Level Job Satisfaction
Household Income Productivity
Marital Status
Monthly Income
Ratings
Motivation
Tenure of work/day

Research objective of the study is to measure the success of gig workers

specifically for the food and courier sectors, for example Swiggy and
amazon delivery, examining various factors that affect productivity.
Research Question is “What is the key determinant of one’s success in the
Gig Economy examining quantitative factors like income, age, education,
flexible working hours and qualitative factors like languages known,
gender, technical knowledge and motivation?” Study focuses on
determining the success of Gig workers in Bangalore City by studying
various variables and its effect on the outcome i.e., productivity and
success. In this paper we will cover the food and courier delivery industry
such as Swiggy, Zomato, amazon delivery. The study describes how the
success of a gig worker can be evaluated using different independent
variables like marital status, age, gender, education level etc. as explained
in the conceptual framework. The other variables affecting the process are
technology and basic needs of a person. The study help us to find the
effect of various independent variables on our dependent variable which is
work life balance. To calculate the work-life integration we look at
dimensions employee’s time for different activities, contribution,
satisfaction etc. The study focuses on analyzing the problems the gig
workers face and the level of success or satisfaction they have on the basis
of the data collected which will help us in improving the current situation
of gig workers. By work life balance we found the number of hours a
person is able to spend with his/her family, worker’s social life in terms of
going out and meeting friends/family and being a part of social gathering,
his/her mental health and productivity.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

As we can see there no significant factors which can affect the
productivity. So, the independent variables doesn’t have any impact on the
productivity. All the p values are less than 0.05.

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Few of the variables are significant and have an impact on the dependent
variable that is satisfaction. Removing insignificant variables, we get the
following output.

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Conclusion
The results show that flexible working have an impact on the satisfaction
of gig workers. However, productivity is not affected by the factors we
considered for study. If the two factors mentioned above are taken into
consideration, then the satisfaction level of the gig work increases. All the
other factors do not have much impact on the work life balance of the gig
worker. Incentives and benefits should be provided to increase the
productivity and motivation to work better. Flexible working hours should
be provided so that they can spend time with family too apart from
working which will create a balance between work and personal life.
Workers need to be supported during uncertain times which will help
them to gain confidence and motivation to work and lead their life.
Productivity cannot be studied or predicted from factors like motivation
and basic factors like income which we used in the study. Satisfaction
level is based on the flexible timings the worker has and not bound to
report to anyone on a daily basis when compared to the full-time
employee. Companies can focus on the technology part to improve the
productivity part to achieve greater reach and serve customers end to end.
They can provide incentives to the workers to improve their satisfaction
level which will in-turn show positive effect on the productivity which
will in turn increase their work life balance and be happy which gives
them motivation to work happily nullifying other factors like benefits
which the full-time employees enjoy. Work life integration is the most
important factor which acts as a bridge between personal life and
professional life. Companies can leverage this point and make policies
accordingly to create overall value.

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