The News Hook
In June, a California judge ruled that some Uber drivers are more than mere contractors, and should be given the rights and benefits of actual employees. This issue was bound to come to a head: According to a study commissioned by the Freelancer’s Union and the online outsourcing service Upwork, 34% of the entire workforce now freelances, and countless startups have recently popped up aimed at putting these millions to work automating and on-demanding both the titanic and trivial inconveniences of our daily lives. Thanks to the surge of new apps, sites, and services, outsourcing that have sprung up around the so-called “gig economy”, just about any time-sucking task to often-anonymous workers has trickled down from the wealthy, to anybody with a smartphone and a distaste for doldrum. You heard it here: In five years, these tools are what the current tech boom will be remembered for.
What’s It It For You:
Buy back that scarcest of resource: time. If somebody else can handle your cleaning (Handy), shopping (Hello Alfred), dog-walking (Wag), laundry (Flycleaners), calendar scheduling (Zirtual), and Ikea construction (TaskRabbit); you can spend more clock ticks relaxing, eating, drinking, traveling, and possibly even being productive. Plus: You get the right to refer people to your “assistant”.
How These Things Work:
Some outsourcing services are as easy as ordering a Uber: Load up the app or site, tap in what you want from the grocery store or what time the dog walker should show up, and you can consider it done. Others—like the virtual assistant service Zirtual—put you in touch with real people who adapt to your needs over time (pro tip: you’ll want to be as clear, consistent, and specific as possible with your directions). Oh, and be creative: You’d be surprised what you can pay somebody to do in your stead; from handling incoming email, to writing your partner a poem.
Inspiring Quotes From Experts:
“There are the obvious near-term uses, of course. Some of mine: TaskRabbit for waiting in line for a new iPhone; Instacart for last-minute groceries (or even 30 lbs of ice for an ice bath), Uber for 100% of my driving in SF (it’s cheaper per month than car insurance, gas, parking tickets, etc.), and so on. But there’s a much bigger picture. Some fun math: If you chop three zeros off of your income and halve it, that’s roughly your hourly income (assuming 40 hours per week average and two weeks of vacation per year). So, if you make $50,000 per year, you make approximately $25 per hour. For far less than that, you will be able to outsource nearly anything in your life that you dislike.” — Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek
“Your time is worth something. If you truly hate a certain task—whether it be grocery shopping, cleaning, or anything else—why not outsource the task so you can spend those hours with your family, or working on a personal project? It’s a case where money can actually buy you happiness and reclaim one of life’s most limited resources: your time.”- Whitson Gordon, editor in chief of Lifehacker.com
How It Helps Real People
“Outsourcing frees up 10 or more valuable hours for me every week. These services have given me my sanity back, both personally and professionally. I run a small business where I supply off-the-beaten-path tours of museums such as the Met in NYC. These services let me focus on what I’m good at—and not on paperwork.” – Nick Gray, 33, Manhattan-based founder of Museum Hack.
“If you can figure out how to work them into your life, these services can save immeasurable amounts of time and allow you to basically be in multiple places at the same time. I’m always amazed at my hedge-fund manager or tech founder clients sitting in three hours of traffic to go let their dog out for 10 minutes.” – Demir Gjokaj, productivity coach and founder of the LA-based Lifehack Bootcamp
The “Con” Side:
With personal outsourcing, we’re dealing with the so-called “gig economy”, and all its foibles. So the workers tackling your chores may not have the security or benefits of a salaried employee. Beyond the June Uber ruling, some critics take it a step further, and contend that these businesses create employment models that are downright harmful to society. “Much of crowdsourcing is about pitting individual workers against each other, and bringing down wages and income, rather than stimulating cooperation,” says Michel Bauwens, director and founder of the P2P Foundation, which studies the impact of peer-to-peer technologies. And while many companies in this space are quick to point out their use of background checks (and, in the case of companies such as Hello Alfred, full employment status), there’s always a risk that the guy you’re trusting with your dog or house key is less than savory. Also: Doing your own laundry builds character.
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