Digital workers are a digital employee
3 min read
Most digital workers work from home
Digital work is an idea that has become a crucial subject of debates within the area of the economy of the Internet.
Living in nowadays, you can find just a few jobs that you can do without including the word “digital”.
In the most general sense, it would mean that you are doing something that is in connection with the Internet.
Digital work is not only for those who grew up with the Internet but much older take such jobs. So we are more and more likely to be able to digitally freelance, all collectively.
General unemployment, high unemployment rate, and bad living conditions are the main reasons. Even if you have a job, relatively solid, salaries can not grow up to half of the rate that boosts the cost of living.
The employer can exploit you as he wants because if you refuse to work, there is someone who will. All of this has shifted us to the necessary creative thinking about employment.
We spoke to Janne. She is a freelancer and digital worker.
The thirty-five-year-old woman had the opportunity to choose a classical “steady job” in a family business. She would have conventional working hours, from 9 am to 5 pm. But still, Janne chooses to combine freelancing and regular work for now. As a freelancer, she deals with media and events management.
“The question that I hate is: what are you doing for a living? The answer is complex because it involves the history of my vocations and non-formal education, as well as a mix of regular work with working hours and freelancing. I like to explain to a freelancer as a lancer. In essence, you always have a lance in your hand. And you have a bow and arrow continually and you are looking for your targets, “says Janne.
For her, the regular working time always was synonymous to monotony and killing of freedom. Then she went to the labor market. Actually, she signed up on one of the platforms that provide freelancing jobs.
Most digital workers, however, mostly work from home.
Digital work from home
So far, you probably know people in your area who get up at five in the morning to hold English Japanese and Chinese lessons through Skype.
Or you know some web designers, developers, or just people who fill up some charts or excel to pdf for the clients.
They are working over platforms such as UpWork, Freelancer, People per Hour and others.
All these people are freelancers and digital workers because, for all the work they do, they do not need to do anything offline.
So, what is digital work?
It involves carrying out a series of gigs. All without indications of long-term employment. These gigs may be English lessons for the Chinese, or essay writing to American high school students but also the more complex tasks. That kind of jobs requires that you are actually educated and skilled. These are jobs in the field of IT, writing and translation, sales and marketing, advocacy, financial, consulting, etc.
Since everything is going virtual, over the platform, they somehow take over the role of the employer. They can issue the modes for doing business. Majority of them, act as economically active profit-making entities. Hence, they decide who and under what conditions can be engaged, or stop working, and, ultimately, perform bookkeeping functions. However, the disadvantage is that the platforms do not offer the opportunity to establish a working relationship.
But it is an advantage at the same time.
If you want working freedom it is for you.
The development of online digital work platforms caused one of the main alterations in the world of work in the last decade.
More and more people, especially young, pick to forego conventional jobs and start a freelance business. That provides them more freedom to build a lifestyle they love.
When the majority think of freelancing, they see jobs like writing, web designing, developing, IT programming, editing gigs.
Those fields are full of chances for all people who want to work from home. It can be on a full-time or part-time basis. they’re far from the only occupations that lend themselves to the freelance life. You can do whatever you want but you must be skilled and have a good education and knowledge.
And you have to be digital educated.
Digital work requires education
Modern jobs require a certain level of digital competency. More than it was the case five years ago.
For example, marketing. It is now mostly a digital job. You must have digital skills for almost all parts of this work. Or writing. There is the same situation. Moreover, it isn’t enough to know how to write and do it like an expert. There is some other knowledge required in order to be among the best-paid writers. For example, you have to be familiar with WordPress, or you must know SEO writing, and for some of the writing jobs, you must have other digital skills.
A freelancer is self-employed. Such expert offers assistance to clients. However, they can give their assistance straight to clients, without third-party included. But the majority of freelancers use some platform as intermediator.
Almost every kind of co-operation or assistance could be given by a freelancer.
How much you can be paid as a freelancer
Freelance pay differs depending on the skills they have to offer.
The knowledge and the business you’re targeting very often will determine your paycheck.
Generally speaking, digital workers can earn from $1 to $100 per hour.
The best paid is website coding, accounting, then virtual assistance, writing, etc.
Advantages of digital work
It is a good way to make extra income.
You can begin immediately. Of course, as soon as you find a client.
You have freedom over work.
Digital work allows you to work from every place over the globe.
Disadvantages of digital work
The new digital workers and freelancers are paid low. The downside is that it requires some time to be paid full-time.
Work can be random.
When you have several clients and projects managing all of them may be pretty tricky if you don’t have excellent organizational skills.
The bottom line
However, with all the defects, you can earn more money through digital work. For the freelancer’s average salary is about $1,000 per month. Among digital workers, the highest salary has the IT sector with an average of $2,000 per month and with full-time engagement.
But the most interesting for our research is that there are gender differences in income. More than 50% of female freelancers earn $500 per month. As a comparison, more than 50% of male freelancers earn $900 per month.
But it is the reflection from the rest of the world. Women are more represented in sectors that are traditionally less paid and pre-defined by prejudice as female jobs.
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