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My life in the gig economy

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My life in the gig economy

Nancy Bush is a veteran bank analyst. The following does not constitute investment advice, and the views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Let me begin this piece by offering a blanket apology to all those folks with whom I am "linked" on the LinkedIn platform. I am a lousy LinkedIn correspondent, and I readily admit it. I think that the reason for this glaring personal deficiency is that by the time I get around to checking my LinkedIn contacts I am already pooped from my Facebook and Twitter activity, and let's face it — there's only so much flitting around social media that one person can do in a day. So LinkedIn tends to get short shrift from me, in spite of the fact that it's probably the only social media application with any real redeeming and tangible value.

But I have to hand it to my LinkedIn friends — they keep trying. A few days ago, I received several messages congratulating me on my 15-year work anniversary, and I must admit that I was at first a bit mystified. Then it struck me — it was indeed 15 years ago that I decided to start my own research firm, fleeing from the endless commutes in New Jersey and from a Wall Street culture that I found increasingly alien and resistant to independent points of view. I must also admit that the passing of my father in July 2001, followed quickly by the events of that September, had left me a bit of an emotional mess, and that I was not working and playing well with others at the time.

Little did I know that I was joining a movement that would become a tidal wave in American life — workers fleeing from full-time and predictable work with a traditional employer into a life of flexible work schedules and catch-as-catch-can revenues. At the time, the term "gig economy" had not come into use (that usage came after the Financial Crisis, as I recall) and what I was doing was regarded by my peers as somewhat eccentric and aberrational. But the existence of one large and important client who was willing to underwrite my efforts and sit with me through the process of figuring out how I could get paid through a "soft-dollar" arrangement made me uniquely fortunate, as did the concurrent push by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (remember him?) to make independent research a viable alternative on the Street.

I was admittedly a beneficiary of good timing and loyal clients, but many who have been forced into economic nomadism in recent years have not been so lucky. The stories of aging Baby Boomers forced into "consultancy" after losing lucrative corporate jobs in the wake of the Meltdown are legion among my peers, and many of these folks have adapted well and happily to this change in their fortunes. (Some, not so much.) And many younger folks — some coming out of college with a different set of aspirations — have chosen to turn to part-time work as they weigh their working futures and economic needs, often working short-term engagements in technology and the arts.

This new evolving labor force now encompasses a large part of American workers — according to a recent article on the Business News Daily web site, roughly 16% (24 million) Americans are involved in "alternative work" — and these folks "included a wide range of alternative employment arrangements, such as workers employed by a temp agency or contract company, on-call workers, freelancers, and independent contractors." The article also mentions that "nearly 10 years after the start of the recession, the gig economy shows few signs of slowing down. Recent research by ManpowerGroup found that 87 percent of the 9,500 global workers surveyed are open to what they call 'NextGen Work' for their next or future position."

Having been one of the vanguard of this group, I feel uniquely qualified to speak to the positives and negatives of the gig life. The overwhelming positive has been the flexibility of geographic location, and this flexibility enabled me to leave the high-cost environment of the Tri-State area for a much lower-cost life in the Atlanta environs. This lowering of my personal expense base in turn has enabled my ability to look to different areas for revenues (broader areas for commentary, for one thing) and to begin a more gradual glide-path toward retirement than might otherwise have been the case. And the growth of the gig economy — both for me and for younger entrants — means that the entire concept of "retirement" will necessarily change and indeed may become a thing of the past as we all continue to work way beyond the age of 65.

If there has been one giant fly in the ointment of my gig career, it has been (by a huge margin) the pursuit of affordable healthcare options. Healthcare for me as an independent worker — one over age 60 who is not eligible for an Affordable Care Act subsidy — has become prohibitively expensive, and here in Georgia the availability of only one insurer in our county for the coming year means that I will be paying a huge amount for coverage that I essentially will not be able to use, as it is an HMO structure in which none of my doctors participate. So at the behest of my accountant — whose real job is to talk sense to me when I go off the rails — I will take coverage not to protect my health but to protect my assets until I qualify for Medicare. The most maddening part of all of this is that the needs of healthy people like me are simple — we just need a catastrophic healthcare option at a reasonable cost — but no one in Washington seems willing or able to understand this need and to craft legislation for that result.

And how about the banking industry — has it fully realized or incorporated into its future growth plans the needs of these new American workers? Not that I can see. While my big bank (the one with the sales practice issues) dutifully sends me the occasional mailing for a credit line or a credit card for my business, I have never received any kind of outreach that would indicate that my bank actually knows what I do or that acknowledges the unique needs of those like me who do not always have a predictable income stream. I am uniquely advantaged in my knowledge of banks and the ways to navigate the various layers of management — and also in the fact that I have no current need to get a mortgage — so I can only imagine the woes of my "gig" peers who might have a greater need for access to credit than I do.

Given that the Millennials and the generations behind them will soon constitute the majority of American workers — and soon will also dominate the customer bases of the banking industry — perhaps it's time for a more robust discussion of the issue of how to serve a clientele that does not fit the model of the "typical" banking customer. While banks seem to be doing a great job of honing in on the delivery demands of these young people — we seem to have more mobile and digital banking delivery than ever — how will banks work with regulators and customers to craft credit products for a cohort whose incomes may vary widely over their working lives? And can banks help these workers effectively plan for the challenges — like healthcare costs and planning for extended working lives — that will become more apparent as the American economy continues to evolve toward an independent and entrepreneurial workforce?

Nope, this is not how I ever envisioned that my working life would proceed. But given the continued demise of traditional Wall Street sell-side research and my own changing preferences for how and where to live, I have been massively privileged and was just plain lucky to have had that one large client who helped me find my way. I hope that many young folks will be similarly lucky — and it would be great if their bankers could help with those transitions.