The number of self-employed workers in the United States has been growing and is expected to comprise as much as 40% of the workforce by the mid-2020s. Although many of us think of gig workers as shoppers or ride-share drivers, as many as 60% of them are skilled professionals.
The winners of the inaugural Visionary Grant are seeking to widen the vision of I-O psychology and make sure those workers have the resources needed to thrive.
Dr. Sue Ashford from the University of Michigan, Dr. Brianna Barker Caza of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and PhD candidate Brittany Lambert of the University of Colorado, Boulder, won the prestigious grant of $100,000 for a proposal to identify the particular challenges faced by gig workers and test evidence-based interventions to bolster resilience among those workers.
“We’ve spent decades on research with a particular worker in mind,” Ashford said, “a worker who travels to a particular place very day and works within an organization. But there is a growing body of people who just don’t work in that way and who may not fit into our theories. And we aren’t capturing their experiences. Those are people who work independently, outside of an organization and on their own.”