Exploring Employee Identity Formation on Gig Economy Platforms: A Narrative Inquiry

This narrative inquiry examines how gig workers construct and sustain professional identities while working through digital labor platforms. Twenty workers completed semi-structured online interviews lasting 45 to 60 minutes. From this pool, eight information-rich narratives were selected for focused analysis through purposive maximum-variation sampling across work types. Thematic analysis identified three connected processes: negotiating professional identity through agency and opportunity, negotiating identity under external pressure, and adapting through resilience and peer support. Participants described themselves as independent professionals and small-business operators, yet their self-understanding remained vulnerable to algorithmic visibility, customer ratings, income instability, family expectations, and occupational stigma. Flexibility supported autonomy and skill development, but it also shifted risk and responsibility to workers. The findings show that gig-worker identity is neither wholly self-created nor determined by platforms. It develops through repeated negotiation among personal agency, platform governance, and social context. The study offers implications for fairer rating and review procedures, accessible skills development, worker support networks, and labor protections that preserve flexibility. Because the analysis centers on eight focal narratives and does not permit systematic regional comparison, the findings are analytically transferable to similar platform-work settings rather than statistically generalizable

gig economy; platform work; professional identity; narrative inquiry; algorithmic

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