Are Adjuncts Gig Workers?
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Contingent faculty.
That is the formal name in post-secondary education for part-time or adjunct faculty. We are hired contingent upon need and resources available to fill that need. Many of us have multiple places where we teach.
The nature of adjunct work is that often it needs to be pieced together for us to make ends meet. Rarely can an adjunct find sustainable employment at one institution. By this, I mean that it is difficult to make ends meet in a single adjunct appointment. Therefore, they typically take more than one appointments or find other academic (or nonacademic) work to supplement their income.
This then begs the question, are adjuncts gig workers? No, not in the same way that Uber and Doordash drivers are (although I know of at least one who works at Lyft on the side). However, their work is surprisingly similar to gig workers in that they also work multiple jobs (gigs), work non-standard (flexible) shifts, work on temporary assignments, and basically run themselves as a small business.
So, are Adjuncts gig workers?
The Statistics of Adjunct Work
The New Faculty Majority is an organization created to “improving the quality of higher education by advancing professional equity and securing academic freedom for all adjunct and contingent faculty.”
They see faculty working conditions as student learning conditions – this is their actual tagline. They work to bring to light the real meaning of contingency and its consequences, both to the faculty and to the students.
From their website, they share some stark statistics about adjunct faculty:
75.5% of college faculty do not have access to tenure (tenure is permanent work status after a required probationary period of employment...usually about 5 years)
This is about 1.3M out of 1.8M faculty nationwide
Of the 1.3M, 700,000 or a little over 50%, are part-time faculty
This precarious condition leaves many parts time faculty with the option of cobbling together multiple part time teaching opportunities to make ends meet. In 2018, I conducted an independent scholarly research project to collect data on adjunct faculty like me. I then presented the findings at the California Sociological Association’s annual fall meeting. I called the presentation, “What About US!”. In my findings, I saw some interesting trends:
35.1%: Age 36-45
83.8%: Female
53.4%: Primary Income Earner
77.0%: Have a full-time job in addition to being an adjunct
31.5%: Household income between $20-40K/yr
59.9%: Work at only one institution
51.4%: Teach 2-3 classes
It is clear from these findings that most organizations and institutions see or use adjunct work as gig work, or at the very least part time work, and that a lot of adjuncts see that work as a side hustle. Yes, these results are just from one independent scholarly exploration, and if it is done at a larger scale, the numbers may be different. This does not negate the facts brought out of this study. Many use adjunct work as gig work. If this is true to a degree, then why not consider adjuncts gig workers?
If adjuncts would begin to consider themselves gig workers, even solopreneurs, then a mental shift would take place. Adjuncts would then see all they do to maintain their craft and expertise as an investment in themselves: Professional development fees = tax deduction, organizational fees = tax deduction, electronic equipment = tax deduction. You get what I am saying here. We are our own commodity. We are experts who provide a service – a consultant with expertise – for a fee (salary).
There is nothing wrong with seeing yourself as a gig worker. You own your knowledge. You invested in yourself to become an expert in your field. Owning this part of you means that it always lives within you. It can never be taken away, and at some point, you will be able to negotiate appropriate compensation for this expertise.
College affiliation is important to those of us who “grew up” in academia. We saw our favorite professors in their offices and spoke about their research or other intellectual pursuit. We wanted that life – the life of the mind. What we neglect to see is that we already have it. It does not live in any location. It is embodied in us!
Conclusion
Adjuncts can, and should, begin to see themselves as gig workers. The job trends for tenure-track or non-tenure track full time teaching positions are cautiously optimistic for the next few years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that work in post-secondary institutions will experience a 9% growth between 2019 and 2029. This trend is a much faster growth rate than all other employment sectors combined…which is actually pretty good. How this will change once the effects of the pandemic are factored in is yet to be seen.
This should not deter you from working on your website, hammering out your catchphrase, and finding innovative ways to share your brilliance with the world. Being a Gig worker means owning your worth, and not letting others define where it lives, or how valuable you really are. If you want to work for an educational institution, great! If you don’t, then that is fine as well.
The gig mindset will help you clearly define who you are, what you do, and why you do it. The gig mindset will help you know your worth. The gig mindset allows you to think beyond the Ivory Towers and see the whole world as a place where you can shine.