Gig workers - The Pros and Cons of Delivering Food

Thumbs up for gig work, at least for some workers, some of the time

This job was scored by our participants as 6.5/10 on average (with ten being the most fantastic job imaginable).

In the busy street of Perth’s restaurant hub, a gathering of young men stand next to their scooters, all bearing the large square, black bag, ubiquitously synonymous with Uber Eats.  

These men are gig workers whose job it is to deliver food to customers who order from restaurants. The workers log into an ‘app’ on their smartphone and wait around in the vicinity of nearby restaurants until they are notified that an order has been placed and needs to be delivered. Then off they go on their scooters or push bikes (mostly scooters), guided by google maps, to their destinations. They are paid “per gig”, and so none of the waiting time, nor the length of time it takes to deliver food, are reflected in the pay received.

In the media, gig worker jobs are often portrayed as menial, unfairly paid, lacking security, and devoid of employee rights and benefits such as annual leave, sick pay and superannuation. In sum, these jobs are labelled ‘poor-quality’.  

But this description doesn’t seem to fully capture the experiences of the gig workers we spoke to. The young men (and they were all men) seemed cheerful and happy. As foreign students, they were keen to improve their English, make friends, and earn enough to get by. They were enamored by the freedom over when they could work, with one worker describing how he could ‘just wake up and get started’. Another went so far as to state that ‘the best point of this, Uber’ was being able to start and finish the work ‘whenever you want to’. The opportunity for social connections was also valued, with workers quoting how they could ‘make friends’ and ‘have fun at the same time (as working)’

The high levels of autonomy and peer support described by our interviewees are hallmarks of a ‘good quality’ job. The instant reward and feedback, with payment per gig, ‘on the spot’ customer feedback and instant online reviews and ratings, can also contribute to a good job experience.

Another attraction was that the start-up costs were low – the lack of prerequisites for getting going as a gig food deliverer (e.g., no responding to job advertisements, no special insurance, no special training) makes the job an accessible one for some people. It is quite clear that, at least for some workers, gig work is a good fit. 

The work isn’t all fun and games though. One worker observed that ‘the money’s not really good’ and that ‘sometimes it’s difficult to get a delivery’; which is consistent with research suggesting overall rather low levels of pay for this type of work.

Another worker found the waiting time ‘boring’, which contrasted with the exhaustion of making the actual deliveries by push bike.

We also noticed high noise levels of the surroundings, with traffic, fumes, and pedestrians adding to the chaos and unpredictable nature of the working environment. Such demands require workers to be flexible, adaptable and at ease with uncertainty. As research has suggested, perhaps gig work is seen as attractive partly because of its contrast against plausible alternative  (and not-very-good) jobs that are available to these workers given visa restrictions? 

Altogether, our brief foray into the world of gig work suggests that, for some people, in a particular space and time, this job seems to do just nicely. The autonomy, social contact, and job feedback are very much welcomed. 

But how long such positive views last (maybe those who get fed up or disillusioned just quit?), how widely the jobs appeal (is it a job mainly appreciated by international students?), or how much the positive views reflect mostly a contrast effect (what if the students were comparing this work to, say, professional jobs?) still needs more investigation.  Of course, such research is exactly what we plan to do in our Centre of Transformative Work Design, so stay tuned for more details!     

References

[1] Humphrey, S., E., Nahrgang, J. D., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Integrating motivational, social and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1332-1356. doi 10.1037/0021-9010.92.5.1332

[2] Goods, C., Veen, A., & Barratt, T. (2017, August 21). Being exploited and breaching your visa: the limited choices of the food delivery worker. The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/being-exploited-and-breaching-your-visa-the-limited-choices-of-the-food-delivery-worker-82589

[3] Kaine, S., Veen, A., Goods, C., & Josserand, E. (2017, June 19). ‘The way they manipulate people is really saddening’: study shows the trade-offs in gig work. The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/the-way-they-manipulate-people-is-really-saddening-study-shows-the-trade-offs-in-gig-work-79042

A little more...

Drone take over?

Technology has enabled food delivery gig work to exist in it’s current form, with smartphones, the delivery ‘app’, and google maps all essential tools for the gig worker.

These drive the efficiency of the process from picking up the food to delivering it safely into the hands of a customer. Even the humble bicycle has a part to play, enabling the transport of food from restaurant to customer in a relatively short space of time. Some predict that over 40% of all jobs in Australia will disappear due to automation. How will developments in technology change gig work in the future though? One worker thinks it will become more automatized, with drones doing the deliveries. He thinks that one day there will be no need for delivery workers. He’s not worried about the future of his job though, as he thinks technology has a long way to go before drones take over, and doesn’t envisage working as a gig worker for ever. In the short term, at least, it seems this job is safe from robot takeover.

Behind the Scenes

by Caroline Knight

We stepped out of the taxi into the throng of Northbridge, Perth, on a Friday night during the Fringe Festival and Chinese New Year. The impatient beeps from cars and the revving of motorbikes greeted us, alongside background tunes playing from various venues along the people lined streets. Large neon lights advertised various shows occurring across the city and excited festival goers were eagerly checking out the vast array of entertainment on offer. 

I began to wonder if we were being a little optimistic to assume that amongst this busyness, we would find some suitably idle ‘gig workers’ willing to talk to us, some researchers from the University of Western Australia.   

I needn’t have worried as we soon came across a gathering of young men standing next to scooters all bearing the large square, black bag, ubiquitously synonymous with Uber Eats.

The young men were cheerful and happy to spend their ‘downtime’ talking to us. We sat on the floor in a little cove outside a shop which was already closed. It was set back a bit from the road so we were out of the way of passers-by. This was an ideal spot for the gig workers as one of the restaurants they delivered food from was just next door and there were several others in the area. It was also a great spot for gig workers to watch their scooters, with scooter parking being available on the road in front of us. As we talked, the other gig workers sat about on their scooters chatting and admiring the sketches our Artist in Residence was producing. In many ways, it seemed the gig workers had created a nice little community for themselves.  

Technology to replace shearers?

"NOT in my life time" Shearing jobs look safe from robots for some time to come

by Sharon K. Parker

Fears of digitalization taking over jobs have ramped up, with many commentators predicting massive job losses in the future.

Yet it seems unlikely that robots will successfully shear sheep any time soon. “Not in my life-time”, predicts Cartright, a world-record-holding shearer. “Robots can do it (shear the sheep)”, he says, “but they cost too much”. Bill, a 67 year old veteran shearer agrees, pointing to the corner of the shed:

“Right there – that’s where they tried a machine set up shearing sheep. It was useless, it couldn’t keep up with the blokes”.

Failed attempts at sheep shearing machines

There have certainly been attempts to shear sheep with robot-like machines since the late 1970s[1]. But, as Steve the boss observed, “they spent $10 million on trying to do that and the machine is sitting over east in someone’s paddock.

So shearing robots have never been very successful. Why is this so?

Shearing is an excellent example of work that is high in tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is ‘knowing how’ to do something, yet not being able to clearly articulate or write down this knowledge[2]. At least historically, because of the difficulty of articulation, it is difficult to acquire and transfer tacit knowledge from skilled human workers to robots. As one of the shearers explained:

 “It (shearing) is a feel job… A robot can’t feel. You feel the handpick, you feel the sheep, and the sheep feels you and knows your positions… it’s a whole body job.”

Robots can't do the whole job

With machine learning, robots are getting cleverer at taking over those tasks we previously assumed were too tacit for machines to learn. But there is still a challenge. Shearing highlights a crucial point about digitalization. And that is that robots and machines are much less likely to cause change in whole jobs, but rather will affect tasks within jobs.

So even if there was a robot shearer that was faster and more cost effective than a human, and that could cope with all the ways that sheep vary, someone still needs to catch the sheep and get it locked in the right position. And someone needs to put the sheep back after its been shorn. And someone needs to pick up the wool, and decide its quality. The massive investment needed to do all these different tasks using robots, in a co-ordinated way, is unlikely to ever justify the savings. It is simpler and more efficient for humans to just shear the sheep. So, in the end, Cartright’s prediction of “not in my lifetime” seems spot on.

Help people instead of replacing them

Instead of trying to replace humans with machines - the focus of many technological efforts - perhaps the goal should be to use technology to help humans to do the work. Maybe, for instance, effort is best spent improving the way shearing is done[3] to better protect shearers’ backs from injury[4].

References

[1] See, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZAh2zv7TMM

[2] Polyani,M. (1958) Personal knowledge. Tacit knowledge

[3] See, for example, http://blog.mecardo.com.au/an-evolution-in-sheep-shearing

[4] Gregory, D. E., Milosavljevic, S., & Callaghan, J. P. (2006). Quantifying low back peak and cumulative loads in open and senior sheep shearers in New Zealand: examining the effects of a trunk harness. Ergonomics, 49(10), 968-981.

The Emotional Labour of being a Surgeon

Stewart scored his job as 3-10/10 depending on the day (with ten being the most fantastic job imaginable).

by Laura Fruhen

A team consisting of surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses has come together to operate on several patients. Each case is different and complex. Each operation has the potential to change someone’s life. The team has a huge responsibility.

Stewart is the lead surgeon today. He discusses what aspects of his work are the most difficult. One might expect that the biggest challenge are technical. After all, Stewart has to choose the exact right surgical technique, and then execute this technique with amazing precision, under time pressure, and with a huge cost of error.

In fact, Stewart talks about emotions and his work. He reflects that:

“There is this image of the surgeon as cold and uncaring. What people don’t realise is that most of us see things and deal with situations that are difficult, like where someone is terminally ill. Most people don’t face such things regularly. You must deal with this dispassionately in order to diagnose and treat but later it is vital to consider things from the patient’s point of view and engage with what they are feeling.”

What Stewart describes is an aspect of work that has been labelled as emotional labour. Some jobs require us to show emotions that we don’t feel, or to hide some of our real feelings [1]. These can be customer-facing professions, such a retail. Healthcare is a classic example of a job that requires emotional labour. Emotional labour takes a toll, and indeed can impair well-being.

In Stewart’s case, what is especially difficult is switching. Sometimes, emotions can get in the way and hinder him from doing a good job, and so he must engage in emotional labour. But at other times, emotions are critical for his work: “The difficult bit is then to re-engage with the patient and to understand what they are going through emotionally. Compassion is vital for the patient and for the surgeon as, for both, it directs the empathy towards providing support either directly or through others. It is this switching from distancing himself emotionally, to really caring about his patients, that is challenging."

Emotions are a core theme for Stewart. In his view, there are “three things make a great surgeon: vulnerability, compassion and humility.” These aspects are all very personal, and require courage and emotional strength to develop. For example, vulnerability means:

“you are trained to make decisions, to be certain and in charge. But sometimes it is hard when you are not quite sure what to do for the best. Taking yourself out of the situation, taking a moment, sticking your hand up to ask for help is hard, but it becomes easier the more often you do it. There are times when even experienced surgeons don’t know the answers. Being able to feel vulnerable (even if in truth you are not) but at the same time not react to it, or at least understand your reactions to it and modify your behaviour is an important skill to master.”

For Stewart, one of the best things about his job is that “you can see the outcomes of what you have done really quickly.“  He explains that how much he enjoys his job can actually vary quite a bit: “Most days, it's a10. Sometimes it is a 3.” He identifies key factors that sometimes make his job harder: “What makes it a 3? It is your own failures, when things don’t go go as well as you had hoped or when errors occur. Also other hassles, when management are after you, or communication with the patient is causing problems.”

What he highlights in particular is an aspect of work that psychologists label as error cost responsibility. The consequences of mistakes that we make at work can be a key stressor, and this is clearly affecting Stewart. When this causes the surgeon to feel vulnerable it may push them towards trying to numb the pain.  This may take a variety of forms; for Stewart it takes the form of snacking. “When I am stressed, I head for the biscuit tin,” he says, patting his stomach.

A little more..

What an anaesthetist said about his job

“The main hassles of being an anaesthetist are funding and bureaucracy”

​“My job is a 10.”

​“My work starts and stops in theatre. It is great that I get to concentrate on one person at a time, rather than having to focus on 20-30 patients throughout the day.”

​“My hours are good, I can see my daughter before I head into work and afterwards.”

​“My job wouldn’t happen without technology. Anaesthesia is only 150 years old, but technology has developed rapidly.“

What a nurse said about her job

“My job is a 10.”

​“Helping people and the people you work with is what makes this job great.”

​“The best thing about working in theatre is that you know each other as a team.”​

“I am here because I love my job. It is the joy of helping people.”​

“The variety of tasks and operations is great.”

“The worst things about my job are equipment issues. When a machine doesn’t work you go into problem solving mode, you know, when you have to run around.

References

[1] Ashforth, B. E., & Humphrey, R. H. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. Academy of management review, 18(1), 88-115

[2] Martin, R., & Wall, T. D. (1989). Attentional demand and cost responsibility as stressors in shopfloor jobs. Academy of Management Journal, 32(1), 69-86. (Raine study)