The Dream of Becoming the Owner of ‘My Work’
“From today, I am the boss of my life!”
In my mid-thirties, I quit the company where I had worked for ten years. Every morning, I endured the hellish commute, endless reports, and overtime. What remained for me were my boss’s nagging and the bittersweet fruit called ‘salary.’ Then I heard about the ‘platform economy’—the idea that I could work only as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted, and earn more than a salary. Yes, this was it! No longer taking orders from anyone, I would survive solely by my skills and efforts, doing truly ‘my work.’ With this hopeful dream, I became a platform worker.
Chapter 1: A Free Spirit, The Birth of a Digital Nomad
At first, it was fantastic. I registered my profile on platforms that offered translation and document work. I could leisurely wake up in the morning, sip coffee, and open my laptop to find various jobs waiting for me from all over the world. One day I could work in a sunny café, the next on a wide-open beach. The life of a ‘digital nomad’ had become reality.
- Freedom of time and place: I escaped the 9-to-6 grind. Sometimes I worked late at night, other times I leisurely watched a movie on a weekday afternoon.
- Reward proportional to effort: When I finished a project overnight, the numbers in my bank account the next day gave me an immediate sense of accomplishment unlike waiting for payday. Unlike at a company, my results were never diminished by a colleague’s mistakes or a boss’s incompetence.
Everything seemed perfect. I often boasted to friends, “Now I feel like I’m truly living my own life.”
Chapter 2: The Invisible Boss, The Rise of Algorithms
But the illusion didn’t last long. It didn’t take long to realize that even in this supposedly free world, invisible rules and a ‘boss’ existed. That boss was the ‘algorithm.’
At some point, the jobs coming my way noticeably decreased. I had no idea why. If my customer rating dropped even slightly or if I responded a few minutes late to messages, the platform would cunningly exclude me from ‘good gigs.’
- The shackles of ratings and reviews: I had to worry about even minor customer complaints. The difference between a 4.9 and 5.0 star rating was bigger than I thought, and sometimes I had to repeatedly apologize for unfair reviews.
- Real-time monitoring: My login times, work speed, message response rate—all became data chains that evaluated me. Even stepping away briefly made me anxious.
- Controlled autonomy: Eventually, to secure more work, I found myself setting alarms to match the platform’s ‘recommended’ times and lowering my rates just to win jobs. It felt like working on a conveyor belt in an invisible factory, with no commute but no freedom either.
I thought I was a free boss, but was I just a part managed by data?
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Chapter 3: Worker or Self-Employed?
The biggest shock came when I got sick. When I was bedridden with the flu for several days, my income was zero. Paid sick leave, which I took for granted when working at a company, was just a dream. There was no severance pay or social insurance.
Suddenly, I wondered:
‘Am I really a worker or self-employed?’
The platform called me an ‘independent contractor’ or ‘partner.’ But I had almost no control over job assignments or pricing. I worked according to the platform’s instructions but legally had no protection—a ghostly existence. That was my reality.
- Disappeared safety net: Without workers’ compensation or employment insurance, all risks were mine alone.
- Lack of bargaining power: Even when fees were raised unilaterally or I was treated unfairly, I was alone. Organizations like labor unions felt like a distant story.
This was the ‘reality shock’ described in books. Behind the utopian future promised by technological advances lay confusion that even shook the definition of labor.
What Should We Prepare For?
I am still working on platforms. But now I hold no vague illusions. AI and the platform economy are an unstoppable massive current, and I am fiercely considering how to protect my rights and maintain a humane life within it.
My story is not just an individual experience. Even now, countless people are sweating in the shadows behind the glamorous platforms. As the belief that technological progress will free us meets the reality shock, we must ask ourselves:
What does ‘work’ mean in this new era, and how should we preserve the value of ‘labor’? The journey to find answers has only just begun.