Career sustainability in gig work: buffering the effects of algorithmic management through agency and meaning-making

Digital labor platforms are transforming work through job deconstruction that is the disaggregation of traditional jobs into algorithmically matched tasks and projects (Jesuthasan & Boudreau, 2022; Rogiers & Collings, 2024). In these digitally orchestrated labor markets, gig workers operate outside stable organizational hierarchies and are governed largely by algorithmic systems. While platform work promises flexibility and novel avenues for self-directed work, it also reconfigures managerial control, employment relationships, and career trajectories. This study examines how algorithmic management shapes career sustainability among gig workers, and tests whether gig workers’ agency and meaning making moderate those effects.