Transformation of employment, and new labor force: Project-based and freelance employees

In this research, it is evaluated how project-based employees in rights-based civil society organizations and public institutions, and freelance employees in the civil society, make sense and experience project-based work, and how project-based work affects the working and private lives of them. This thesis created with concepts and theoretical foundations frequently used in today's labor literature, contributes by giving a comparative place to the experiences of more than one sample group, and focuses on their semantic world. In this qualitative research, the experiences of the actors are evaluated with the social conditions they take place in benefited from Structural Constructivism. With this research, in which purposive-snowball sampling is used, online in-depth interviews are conducted with a total of 24 people, including 8 freelancers, 9 project-based civil society and 7 public employees, using a semi-structured interview form. The data are subjected to content analysis with MAXQDA 2022. The working experiences of freelancers and project-based employees in civil society show similarities and differences with each other and within themselves. These flexible working forms seem precarious from different aspects, and these employees are also displayed a fragmented appearance. Due to the capital-oriented nature of civil society and public services, the rights of these productive workforce are not protected. These employees with lack of professional identity, career narrative and long-term plans to the future, are becoming increasingly precarious as "individuals with an uncertain future". Despite being precarious, these forms of works are normalized by the employees, and working from home increased with the effect of the pandemic and digitalization, makes flexible working demanded. Work organized around the lives of these employees, who are considered as producers of intangible labor in this thesis, shows the domination of flexible working on their lives.