Hustle and gig
Alexandrea Ravenelle introduces us to a new era of the workforce, mostly dominated by the Millenials, which she is calling the ‘sharing economy’ or ‘the gig workers.’ The workers here devise ways of avoiding paying off of the taxes while at the same time, the ‘new age entrepreneurs’ love to be their own bosses and are running away from the traditional work practices of being managed as in the case of Sarah “ I could build a schedule, and it was just really reliable. I couldn’t believe that I could make a living off of it” (Ravenelle, page 1). She describes the gig economy as that, though with flexible schedules and somewhat unlimited earnings, that which requires one to work for long hours “ sometimes he would work a double shift of sixteen straight hours” (page 136), with “little pay and less stability”(Page 5)
Ravenelle shows the other side of this form of work, showing that it is not all rosy as the young people would want to believe. She demonstrates how the so-called freedom is surrounded by quirks, and the work is characterized by completion pressure and stringent rules, as in the case of Sarah, who was “concerned that she would slip below the 85 percent acceptance rate” (page 1). She describes a bathroom cleaning job where she was almost sure that drugs are taken there, a room full of mud, but she was still willing to take the job of the “crack den” (page 2).
The author narrates personal accounts of about eighty workers putting them into three categories, namely; those that have succeeded in getting the life they envisioned through the gig economy, those still struggling financially, and those who have their full-time jobs but use the gig economy to make extra cash. She not only analyzes the economic benefits that come with this form of work but also how the gig economy has affected the society and wonders whether policy interventions are required to save the situations lest we experience labor issue movement.
Despite its app-enabled modernity, Ravenelle equates the gig economy to the early industrial age work, which was characterized by workers “worked for long in the piecemeal system, workplace safety was non-existent, and there are few options for redress”(page 5 &6). The little pay that these workers get can be equated to the spinning wheels given to women workers during American colonization by Britain. In the sharing economy, workers do not enjoy even the fundamental rights protection on matters relating to sexual harassment and discrimination. They have no right to form labor unions or a system for redress in case of workplace injuries. The big promises by the gig economy are not often matched by the actual experiences of the workers. The ease and access to getting a job does not guarantee safety and peace of mind for the workers.
In the third and fourth chapters, the author discusses the issues of occupational hazards experienced my the gig economy workers. She observes while much of the gig economy workers are fresh graduates, usually in their twenties and thirties, there are a few older people in the sharing economy. While the former often take up the jobs for survival and help them pay for university loans, the former take up the jobs as a last resort as a resort of many years of unemployment and age discrimination exhibited by employers. Most of these cases are no success stories but people struggling. These two groups of people are generally vulnerable as a result of desperation. As a result, they are exposed to occupational hazards and accidents while at the same time, do not enjoy protection from employers.
The human resource issue also comes in the spotlight. While most of these workers in the sharing economy are on call, 24/7, the human resource department form the ’employers’ are often out of reach. Most of the companies have limited their contacts by email or website only. Most of the workers’ issues go unanswered for days. The workers’ issues are hardly dealt with, and when they are, it takes longer to do so. It is sad how the employer lacks any form of responsibility towards their workers while they massively exploit them. In the fifth chapter, the author discusses harassments, both physical and mental, experienced by the gig economy workers. In the sharing where we have peers hiring peers, “hiring one’s peer can lead to an asymmetrical power situation, which may further increase the incidence of sexually uncomfortable situations”( page 120).
The Hustle and the Gig follow The uncertainty reduction theory put forward by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese. The theory states that people need prior information about others to reduce their uncertainty. When interacting with people, they need information about the other party to reduce their uncertainty. In other words, there is a sense of discomfort people experience when they are uncertain about the other person’s behavior or action. This communication theory looks into initial interactions between people before the actual communication process. They try to reduce this uncertainty through interpersonal communication. The theory identifies the two types of uncertainty, namely cognitive uncertainty and behavioral uncertainty.
In her analysis Alexandrea Ravenelle says that he workers in the gig econmy ungo screening and background checks, for example Task-Rabbits has “Taskers must pass an identity check, are screened for criminal offenses, and must arttend and orientation”(page 113) and that “Worker’s profiles are often more complete than those of clents and include a photo and a short biography”(page114). “As a result, clients have a good fairy idea of who they are hiring or letting into their homes (page 114). There is no much information a worker has concerning the client because “TaskRabbit provides only the first name and the first initial of the customer” (page 114), thus “Googling for more information is nearly impossible” (page 114). This, in the first place, compromise on the workers’ safety as rightly put, “I just feel like you can’t say you are worried about our safety if you allow any type of person to be on the web site……I think they should definitely go a background check, too, or something” (page 115). Otherwise, situations witnessed by Kitchensurfing chefs “Perhaps unsurprisingly, they also reported more interactions with sexual undertones other situations that simply made them feel uncomfortable” (page 117) would persistently be common.
At all three stages of interaction, namely entry, personal, and exit stage, the gig workers are expected to be professional and interact with their clients at a very minimal level. They are often prohibited from getting information concerning the client using active and interactive strategies and can only employ a passive strategy to understand their clients. This is very inhibiting and limited in nature. The workers can gather very little information about the clients they are serving.
Ravenelle argues since a young age, children are taught to avoid talking to strangers and even receiving gifts from them. She is therefore astonished at hoe the gd economy had made it look okay for one to get into a stranger’s bedroom, kitchen, or even car. She says the sharing economy always allows a peer to “always rely on unknown people entering into a home of a fellow unknown either……” (page 113). This goes against the norms because we only invite very close people into our homes, let alone bedrooms and bathrooms. The sharing community jeopardizes the safety of both the client and the worker. The workers are expected to behave normally in unfamiliar places.
With the hard economic times, I will conclude by saying the gig economy os, not entirely evil. It is helping thousands of millennials put food on their table and have a shelter under their head. The sharing economy has its challenges as stipulated above, but I believe that if the US government can formulate policies that protect the workers against exploitation from the employer and guarantee their safety and that of the clients, it’s a good alternative to the formal employment.
References
Ravenelle, A. J. (2019). Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy. U of California P.