What does work and career success mean for those who secure their work using digital labor platforms? Traditional research on success predominantly relies on organizationally-centric benchmarks, such as promotions and income. These measures provide limited insights into the evolving nature of work and careers shaped at the intersection of digital labor platform technologies and workers' evolving perspectives. Drawing on data from a longitudinal study of 108 digital labor platform workers on Upwork, we (1) identify seven dimensions of success indicators that reflect workers' definitions of success in platform-mediated work and careers, (2) delineate three dimensions of digital labor platforms mediating workers' experiences of success and (3) examine the shifting perspectives of these workers relative to success. Based on these findings, we discuss the implications of platform-mediated success in workers' labor experiences, marked by platformic management, standardization, precarity and ongoing evolution. Our discussion intertwines CSCW scholarship with career studies, advancing a more nuanced understanding of the evolving perspectives on success in platform-mediated work and careers.

We advance gender-inclusive research within the CSCW field by investigating the long-term gendered experiences of online freelancers on digital labor platforms. The prevalence of gender-based inequalities has attracted significant attention within the CSCW community. Yet, insights remain limited on how these inequalities shape workers' long-term experiences on digital labor platforms. Through a five-year longitudinal study of 105 freelancers on Upwork, we reveal persistent gender disparities that influence workers' long-term work and career trajectories, raising concerns about the sustainability of platform-mediated work. We advance the ongoing dialogue on gender inclusivity in the community by introducing the concepts of career disempowerment and platform-mediated motherhood penalty and by offering research and design implications for CSCW to foster more sustainable, equitable platform work environments for all genders.

We contribute empirical and conceptual insights regarding the roles of digital labor platforms in online freelancing, focusing attention to social identities such as gender, race, ethnicity, and occupation. Findings highlight how digital labor platforms reinforce and exacerbate identity-based stereotypes, bias and expectations in online freelance work. We focus on online freelancing as this form of working arrangement is becoming more prevalent. Online freelancing also relies on the market-making power of digital platforms to create an online labor market. Many see this as one likely future of work with less bias. Others worry that labor platforms' market power allows them to embed known biases into new working arrangements: a platformization of inequality. Drawing on data from 108 online freelancers, we discuss six findings: 1) female freelance work is undervalued; 2) gendered occupational expectations; 3) gendered treatment; 4) shared expectations of differential values; 5) racial stereotypes and expectations; and 6) race and ethnicity as an asset. We discuss the role of design in the platformization and visibility of social identity dimensions, and the implications of the reinforced identity perceptions and marginalization in digital labor platforms.

We advance the concept of deconstructed identity to explain how online workers' identities are being reshaped, diminished and controlled by digital labor platforms. We focus on online freelance workers and contribute to contemporary conceptualizations regarding worker's self-presentation. The empirical basis for our analysis and theorizing build from two rounds of a longitudinal panel study of online freelance workers and their interactions with online labor platforms. Findings illuminate how online freelancer's identity presentation is constrained by the structuring of their profile, the ratings and client feedback, the algorithms used by the digital platform, and platform's terms of use. Data demonstrate that workers' profiles are focused on skills, reflecting the realities of competing for work in under-regulated labor markets. Study participants report the centrality of client and platform ratings of their work, and the need to manage client feedback and ratings as a core part of their online identity presentation. These findings suggest that, far from a subjective and personal story, a freelancer's identity on a digital labor platform is better understood as a standardized depiction of skills, ratings, and metrics controlled by platform algorithms. Coupled with use policies and evolving platform designs, this platform control creates what seems to be a form of indentured servitude. We further note online freelancers both recognize this control and resist their deconstructed identity.