I was actually expecting worse. None of the following describes sexual assault or harassment:
"A messenger for Postmates and Uber Eats told me about an errand to pick up sex toys that ended in an invitation to try out the new acquisitions. Chefs on Kitchensurfing, a chef-booking platform that is now defunct, discussed working swingers parties, being asked to take part in threesomes and cooking for clients who had loud sex in the next room. TaskRabbits related stories about being hit on (both during and after a task); invited to participate in revenge sex;"
3
I'm not quite sure this can be classified as "news", I drove a cab one summer in Chicago, 50 years ago, and I was the only one of all my friends that wasn't held-up. And for the last 45+ years, I've been a "gigging" musician, prone to all the various hazards of free-lancing, gigs canceled at the last minute, clients/clubs being short, or just not paying, being a target for late-night robbers, while loading expensive instruments & gear, often in dark alleys, etc.
Fortunately, I've not ever been physically attacked, but it's happened to plenty of others, so that crimes occur in the privacy & isolation of independent drivers, chefs, etc, is nothing new. But that so many jobs are now part of the "gig economy", only underscores how unfair & toxic our economy has become.
Like "right-to-work", "gig economy" basically means one is a worker with no guarantees, & far fewer safeguards or certainty, than working people had in the past. You can be fired without notice or cause, pay will be the lowest a company can offer, and still find workers, benefits & pensions mostly a fantasy, no union to stand up and advocate for improvements.
In other words, today most companies just don't care, there's always more people looking for a job.
I drove a taxi 75,000 miles in 7 months in Boise Idaho in 1978, earning an annualized current equivalent of $35,000/yr for a 60 hour week. In that time the owner of the cab had to replace a transmission, a flywheel, a starter, a shock mount and at least one set of tires and brakes.
Depreciation of 10% to 15% a year on vehicles to calculate book value is based on assumed mileage of 15,000 or so a year. To earn any decent money a'gig' driver would have to drive 50,000 to 100,000 miles a year like I did. In two years the book value of the car would be destroyed, something that is not taken into account I am sure. If buying a used car the first thing I would ask is if it had ever been driven for a ride hailing service, and would need the answer in writing. If yes, assume actual mileage is at least 100,000 to 200,000 miles above what shows on the odometer and make an offer accordingly, or none at all.
Thank you for this
Important article.
1
A gig is short for an engagement. A regular gig is a scheduled repeat engagement. A taser is a non-lethal gun which you conceal on your person when you work a new gig.
1
I started work as a rabbinic chaplain and was totally unprepared for the staggering sexual harassment I have been subjected to. Everything from requests for dates and questions about my relationship status to hugs that lingered too long, to unwanted touching (including groping and kissing). Because I am not affiliated with any formal movement or synagogue, and am a 1099 contractor in all of my workplaces, I don't usually know who to report this behavior to. In the rare instances when I do have a point of contact, like a hospice or funeral director, my reports are shrugged off with the excuse that people do weird things when they are under extreme duress. Less than a year out of school and I'm already starting to lose my faith.
5
Exploration and amelioration of sexual harassment and assault and other forms of discrimination among or toward volunteers of nonprofits also calls out for attention and allocation of resources.
2
Not that I don't trust Sociology assistant professors, but there seems to be a current trend among Sociology (and the Humanities in general) departments faculty in Universities that consists of coming up with a theory, then doing some random "research" to find anecdotal "evidence" to prove it.
Interviewing 80 people or less and deriving some sort of conclusion fits the trend.
It would be useful to know where these nearly 80 people were sourced (post-traumatic support groups? Filed complaints rosters? Randomly?), and to know what definitions were given for "assault", "abuse", and even "uncomfortable experiences", when asking people if they'd been subjected to either.
For some people, being subjected to Weinstein opening his robe would be merely an uncomfortable experience; for radicals, it would qualify as rape, because technical falsehoods don't matter if you feel upset or scared. The same radicals will qualify a persistent gaze as assault, because, again they gauge words according to their feelings rather than the definitions.
Apart from actual rape and assault, there's no way (or reason) to expect to feel safe from awkward interactions when dealing with the general public; different people having vastly different comfort zones.
The author may dream of a society where the only interface you get for services is a robot, which I guess would be the only entity whose feelings can't be hurt, but you'll never be able to legislate awkwardness out of human interactions.
2
So that's why Taxis have those plexiglass dividers between the driver and the passenger: Keep the drivers safe while working. It seems that all these "disruptors" nowadays rely on making us all out to be suckers, giving up the safeties that we've come to take for granted, come to expect from the folks we do business with. Except they're not folks any more, or people in any sense of the word. We deal with monoliths, every transaction covered by an arbitration agreement. Nowadays, the transparent barrier is between us and them.
3
Off topic, but I find it scary that a driver who is a bad actor knows my home address. However, having heard a harrowing story from a driver who was subjected to armed robbery, I know they can be in danger too. Ironic because the lack of cash led many to originally think they were in less danger from passengers
2
You note that "most of the rape victims are riders" and then spend the rest of the piece writing about "uncomfortable experiences for the drivers.
Yikes.
1
Oh the horrors. Does the author really think that live-in house staff, nannies and now mannies do not experience the same? What about the lawn/pool person and the babysitter?
Here's a part of the solution, if you feel you were criminally wronged, call the police, not your employer or the company you "hired". Rape and sexual assault are felonies, why for the love of your favorite deity would you call Uber or whatever company instead of the police? By not going to the police you are allowing the criminal to continue attacking people.
Has anyone stopped to think that getting a gig from a swinger site might come with a little something more than just cooking dinner? Learn like the rest of us did and only use sites that you find acceptable, refuse jobs from people who did wrong (not criminally), and leave before you get in the door if you feel something is is not right.
3
"Sharing economy?" seriously? the gig workers are the 21st Century equivalent of sharecroppers. They might be able to choose the times they work but when they work, they are exploited. Lets not dance around with "acceptable language" for this tech enabled atrocity.
5
It's not just Uber and the like but all these internet companies, especially Airbnb, for which you have effectively no recourse, if you are done wrong. Other than cashing your check, there is absolutely nothing they take responsibility for doing and for which they can be held accountable. To paraphrase President Clinton, "It's the internet, Stupid!"
In any case, it is likely that somewhere in the fine print every user, worker, or consumer signs or clicks on these days is a provision stating you "voluntarily" waive your individual and collective right to go to court, and instead agree to binding arbitration, a policy never intended by the 1925 law establishing a legal arbitration category but created by the Supreme Court through the decades, culminating most recently in Epic Systems vs. Lewis.
These Supreme Court rulings are effectively much more dangerous to our society than is Citizens United.
5
6.000 "assaults" out of how many 19's of millions f rides? While reprehensible it doesn't seem overly dangerous to take an Uber.
2
I wouldn't work any gig job without having a live camera feeding directly to cloud storage. People tend to behave better when their actions are being recorded. It even sobers up drunk people.
One major problem with gig interactions is that the gig worker is perceived to be financially vulnerable. This can open the door to inappropriate advances. It's not likely many gig workers are doing two or three jobs for the fun of it.
The "Do's and Don'ts" need to be clearly defined and posted. Any rule breaking must be reported.
1
Uber doesn’t even take responsibility for the dangers their drivers face from customers. It earns most of the income with none of the responsibility that its employees, I mean, independent contractors, have. The wealthy have utterly failed and betrayed Americans - both consumers and employees..
4
the solution to this is so simple. As a ride share driver i have done over 4,000 rides. As a driver i can count on one hand the number of conflicts i have had with passengers. It is usually their attitude about something. None of these conflicts have ever led me to put someone on the curb or lay hands on anyone. As far as the sexual abuse issue which disgusting and abhorrent, all these ride share companies need to do is put cameras in the cars. If you are not doing anything wrong you won't even notice it is there. If you are doing monkey business you'll get caught. As far as making ride share business a "legal job" liberals please keep your hands of my economic opportunity. i prefer my independent contractor status, settimg my own hours, earning write-offs and paying my own taxes. thank you very much.
If you pause in front of a yogurt display for more than ten seconds Google will serve you up an advertisement for Chobani Yogurt.
If you stand in someone's kitchen that has an Amazon Alexa device and talk about a sewing machine Google will start feeding you advertisements for Singer Sewing Machines.
All of these gig worker companies know everything about everybody. Postmates knows everything about all the drivers on Uber Eats. DoorDash knows everything about everybody that is a Lyft Driver. Rounding out the database of bad actors just diminishes the pool of potential employees and increases their costs.
1
Being an interracial couple, I have been banned from Uber because of 1 star ratings from drivers who do not tolerate my S/O and I. I frequently have to contact both Lyft and Uber about my rating.
4
The term gig comes from the freelance arts world, where musicians, actors, dancers, and other artists are hired for specific performances or to be in groups of performers, for pay, usually ( but not always) short term.
It would be interesting to learn more about the origin of the word gig. What's interesting here is how it came to be applied to jobs like taxi driving, and why we call it a 'gig economy' instead of freelancing.
'Gig', to me, has a sort of cool, informal vibe, whereas 'freelance' seems more professional.
Is it just a mistake of semantics or did ride sharing companies purposely co-opt the term?
As a freelancer musician myself I have often felt used and abused at gigs, and there are many many examples in the arts world of rampant sexual harrassment that goes with the territory. When there are less boundaries on behaviors (ie, workplace rules) and the power dynamics are not regulated, abuse happens.
The author should dig deeper into the 'gig' world, there are many current and historic parallels across industries, but especially in the arts to the Uber and Lyft economic system.
Feels like we are going backwards when worker and consumer rights are eliminated via a vis structures of corporations that avoid responsibility for problems inherent in the work they profit off of.
33
@Ellen S.
Gig is a computer science word -gigabyte.
Increased awareness and regulations help, but as women we also share responsibility. Men are able to get away with bad behavior because many women indulge them and enable them to do.
1
@Alexia
Two thoughts:
1) The word "gig" in this context has a much older origin than that of "gigabyte."
With thanks to english.stackexchange.com:
Here's the full entry in A Jazz Lexicon (1964) by Robert S. Gold, which offers a possible etymology and some early quotations.
gig, n. [poss. from gigue, a lively dance form of Italian origin commonly used as the last movement of a suite (cf. English counterpart jig): from Old French giguer; according to jazzman Eubie Blake, bandleader James Reese Europe used the term in its jazz sense as early as c. 1905; widely current since c. 1920] Initially, see 1955 quot.; since c. 1955, see 1959 quot. (though, it should be noted, for the non-jazz job, the term is applied only to a non-jazzman; for the jazzman, the non-jazz job is a hame or a day gig, q.v. ).
— 1926 Melody Maker, Sep., p. 7. One popular "gig" band makes use of a nicely printed booklet.
—1931 Melody Maker, May, p. 369. Bill Henry and his orchestra were responsible for the undoubted success of half the local gigs.
—1946 Really the Blues, p. 370. gig: single engagement, club date.
—1955 The Encyclopedia of Jazz, p. 346. gig: job
and 2) men often get away with bad behavior because women are afraid they'll do something even worse, if we try to make them stop.
Speaking only for myself, I've never looked at sexual harassment as an indulgence on any level.
13
@Alexia the word predates the computer age - musicians used it first. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_(music)
8
I use my local taxi here in Boise. It's called Green City Taxi. The owner's name is Karim. He is the kindest, most thoughtful taxi driver ever. His brother now picks us up and takes us to the airport when we need a ride. They are personable, funny, generous, kind and a joy to be with. Why go with Uber when you can have a relationship with your taxi drivers.
The biggest issue in our country right now is lack of good community. Make your taxi driver part of your community.
43
@Julie
"I use my local taxi here in Boise..."
I used to use my local taxi's here near Newark. The cars smelled, had no shocks, were filthy, and the seat belts usually didn't work. The drivers usually were usually on some kind of weed and could barely find there way out of the neighborhood, much less the destination I wanted to go in. I had to call hours in advance to guarantee a timely pickup. The cost used to average 2 to 3 times what I paid using Uber or Lyft.
I'm a big supporter of reform to insure basic workers protections to the so call gig economy and am happy to pay the increasing fares being charged for my trips as the financial realities hit home after the go-go days of these startups as long as most of it goes to the workers. However, nobody is going back to taxis.
6
@Julie Boise is kind of a small city. Such relationships are nearly impossible to cultivate in a large metropolitan area even if you call the same cab co. all the time. And why would someone want to do that when cabs usually make you wait noticeably longer than ride share services? when cabdrivers are often surly, grubby looking characters whose command of English isn't very good, and whose smoking habit stinks up the vehicle? and when they charge more for their "service" than do the ride-sharing apps? No thanks. Having experienced both I'll stick with Lyft or Uber over a cab any day.
4
@Julie
Perhaps "have a relationship" is a poor choice of words, but I do agree with Julie -- know your driver always.
Solution!!!!! Place instant video of incidents recorded automatically by button controlled by driver and auto emergency call sent to 911 that only driver can hear and customer is NOT aware of. Driver can have ear piece and buttons on their phone to hidden place to drive to and have police waiting.
Years ago my son was a pizza delivery driver. He worked for Pizza Hut, wore cap and jacket with company logo, had a sign for his car. If customers misbehaved, got aggressive, or refused to pay, the company refused further delivery. They protected their employee. This whole gig economy thing is obscene. Working freelance is a totally different thing. Uber Andy Lyft set up their drivers to fail.
7
By using the term gig, the writer here demeans not just uber drivers but all workers who are continuously finding their work made more and more precarious while protecting exploitative. practices that increasingly pervade our society from creeps who drive to the President of the United States.
What makes anyone think that employers across the country with unprecedented power have not taken notice of what the most public of positions can get away with.
What makes anyone so inclined to exploitation, violence, and other crimes that are about abuse of power recognize that it's a whole new world out there where seemingly we have more and better technology to protect people, are instead used even more effectively to endanger, rob them of the fruit of their work, and in the case of our leaders to throw elections and sew unrest.
The solutions offered here would be ludicrous were not for the staggering inadequacy not just for uber workers but for behavior that increasingly pervades every workplace.
Accepting the gig notion is just one more way those with money and power find a way to keep others from having any. This article is only more justification and propping of of those who should be ripped out of positions who have so much control of other people lives.
2
I agree with the author that this type of service presents unique opportunities for discrimination/harassment/abuse, and I agree with comments that it would be relevant and illuminating to compare to other services, but what really strikes me anout this article is the shifting landscape that presents an inappropriate invitation as one of these offenses (and likewise suggests recipients are victims). I think I could agree with this, yet at the same time I wondered if that means we’re headed towards Victorian era sexual repression. And beyond that, I also wonder that little is being said about stopping the actual cause of sexual offenses—uncontrolled desires—and why we focus less on controlling these desires themselves than on the results of them. Or would that too look like repression? Rape would be a lot easier to prevent if potential rapists didn’t want to rape someone, rather than just being afraid of being caught.
So after we've gutted well regulated services, or "disrupted" if you prefer, we discover that the unregulated replacements allow abuses. Imagine that...
But human nature will always have some strong preying upon the weak. That's part of the problem with having Republicans in charge, deregulating everything in sight.
1
@br There was no regulated taxi where I live - Uber is it. It's new opportunity for both customers and drivers.
And heavily regulated NYC taxi was horrible - horrible driving, smells... Got much better recently. Wonder why?
2
Gosh, who woulda thought?
Here's a novel concept: Women drive only women. Women ride only with women.
Not rocket science, except for the millions of us who were apparently born yesterday.
"Workers consistently described their experiences as “weird,” “uncomfortable” or “Bizarro land” — but rarely as sexual harassment or assault."
Because it isn't sexual harassment or assault unless everything is. The examples here quoted were certainly weird or crude depending on a person's sensibility but certainly not sexual assault. Being "hit on" can't be when the world we live in (as reflected in every ad, every broadcast TV show, movie, or streaming series) depicts 24-7 hitting on by both sexes.
You'll be maintaining your base, but probably losing a bunch of the fringe and middle if continue to argue that an adult in today's society who doesn't know how deflect the common "want to join in" or "want to try some?" (whether it's a sex, a drug, another drink, or some disgusting "chic" food being aggressively presented on a fork an inch from your mouth by a faux-gourmand) with a "hey. I'm cool" or other similar polite refusal is in actuality being harassed.
I agree 100% that it is Bizarro Land.
1
"the ability to anonymously report questionable and uncomfortable situations to the platforms — with a promise that such actions will not affect worker ratings or algorithmic rankings — should be accompanied by a guaranteed wage in the event that workers find themselves in a dangerous situation."
This would be nice - but how on earth could you ever put something like this in practice without having it be abused? Of course bad people would abuse such a feature. I'm not saying it wouldn't be wonderful but think of how this would actually play out.
I had an uber driver who spent the entire trip talking about liberal conspiracy theories without pausing to take a breath in the 30 minute drive. I just give him a lower rating for being a bit weird. What if he really made me angry and I decided to take it out on him by anonymously reporting him for whatever I want?
Right now if conduct is really bad, you call the cops. If conduct is not that bad, you give them a poor rating. Putting in a middle ground that acts as a supercharged poor rating is asking for false accusations and conflicts. Attack the real problem - people are so desperate for work they'll put up with a lot of uncomfortable situations.
11
While my girlfriend and I were working full time for uber, a passenger grabbed her groin. She reported it immediately to Uber. Without hesitation, the rep on the phone told her that passenger would never have another uber ride in their life. A month later, she had the same passenger. Though we would like to think this was just an error on their part, she had other passengers repeatedly that Uber had supposedly banned. The reality of the situation was, the driver comments and emergency help line were not a tool for drivers to protect drivers. It was a deceptive campaign employed by Uber to avoid desperate drivers airing their complaints publicly about a company who cared about profit rather than people.
17
@Dan Gehret To be fair, there's nothing to prevent one person to Uber (or Taxi, or car service) for other person. Uber can ban account, but that still lead to the situation described.
3
"Uber is starting to move in that direction by adding the ability to contact 911 through the app in select cities"
A big step forward for Uber, if combined with training and coordination with law enforcement agencies and expanded to ALL cities.
But, I must wonder about the ethics and standards of gig employers. Chefs for swingers parties? Drug shopping trips? Incoherent, barely conscious drunks dumped into Uber cars by "friends"?
None of the above would shock the conscience of many gigmeisters (think Travis Kalanick), but it's time for this industry to grow up.
4
The gig economy exists because it discards all the previous controls, constraints, and regulations of the traditional economy.
Only by ignoring the rules that create and protect the economy, employees, and customers does the gig economy have a chance to turn a profit.
12
I have always considered it totally nuts to get into a car with an Uber driver. The whole set-up is inherently dangerous.
4
@Elisabeth I grew up being taught to never get into a taxi alone - Uber is an improvement, at least I know the name of the person, and someone can track my route.
1
Single (as in 'alone') females are targets no matter what they're doing. Like it or not, there are some situations you simply do not want to put yourself in.
2
The bottom line imo is that most of the time the law is clear what is legal and not legal re this type of crime post 1980. Before that it wasn't.
That is not the problem. The problems are the extremes that pervert the process.
What I mean by this are at least three main groups not only in this specific industry but in all industries.
1-First and foremost The predator who engages in it.
2-The co dependent, enabling "victim" who does nothing, waits 20 yrs to complain (Anita Hill), only stops if raises, roles etc stop, (me too movement), accepts money from known predators like Weinstein if they are contributing to your cause (Hillary, NOW, Streep etc.), or worst start the sexual activity. Millions of women post app. 1980 did not enable the predator like above and received justice.
3-HR departments who only are concerned about not being sued and/or losing the case instead of justice. They will protect higher ups who are well connected but hang out to dry a poor soul who doesn't have protection and very wel mayl be innocent.
If the above were followed, there would be a drastic reduction in this type of crime and swifter, fairer justice for all parties.
3
Alexandrea Ravenelle's concept of the "gig economy" is far too narrow, oriented as it is entirely toward those jobs completely dependent on the internet. The vast majority of musicians, for example, make their living through gigs, and there is no reason to believe what she writes would apply to them.
It's not just Uber and the like but all these internet-defined companies, especially Airbnb, for which you have effectively no recourse, if you are done wrong. Other than cashing your check, there is absolutely nothing they take responsibility for and for which they can actually be held accountable. To paraphrase President Clinton, "It's the internet, Stupid!"
In any case, it is likely that somewhere in the fine print every user, worker, or consumer signs or clicks on these days is a provision stating you "voluntarily" waive your individual and collective right to go to court, and instead agree to binding arbitration, a policy never intended by the 1925 law establishing a legal arbitration category but created by the Supreme Court through the decades, culminating most recently in Epic Systems vs. Lewis.
These Supreme Court contract rulings essentially abolish the right to a trial by jury, class action suits, and other judicial processes, including those expressly authorized by states. They are effectively much more dangerous to our society than is Citizens United.
The author is confused. The problem of sexual abuse is no more prominent in the gig economy than it is in any other occupation. Humans are humans.
3
Why are 6,000 incidents “disturbing”? The number of rides in that period was over a billion, meaning these incidents were reported in 0.0006% of the rides.
Of course a smaller number would be better, but the rational conclusion from the report is that an Uber ride is an extraordinarily safe place for driver and customer.
It’s interesting that the interviewees mostly didn’t consider their “weird” experiences to be sexual harassment but the author attributes that to their defeatist attitude, in need of her superior guidance. Why not trust people’s judgement instead of superseding it with your own agenda?
7
The "Gig Economy!" Great hook! Great thought up euphemism for "You're on your own, peddling whatever you have to sell."
Yes, it could be the beginning of a new business. It could also be the last gasp of desperation. But, hey, you're on your own...
The poster child of the "Gig Economy"is Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Match Girl." It's from about 1840 or so. It's a brief tale of a brief life in times that we hoped were gone by. Reread it! If you haven't ever encountered it, look it up. It's where the uber masters of this retro economy is trying to take us.
2
Uber wasn't the beginning of what you term the "gig" economy. I grew up delivering pizzas and sandwiches. Sometimes in very rough neighborhoods. Later I began canvassing door-to-door. Sometimes in very rough neighborhoods. In fact, any retail or customer service job comes with varying degrees of creepy. We shouldn't assume the gig economy was ever a safe working environment. We're just seeing more people participate in it regularly.
You think getting tipped out cash under the table is any better than Uber. Trust me I saw some weirdness on the job. I was placed in some very unsafe situations. Even if you had a cell phone, it's not like you could stop in the moment and say, "Excuse me, I need to take this call." Safety is a very office-like presumption.
You learn how to sense when things are wrong and extract yourself from the situation accordingly. Head on a swivel. Hopefully you don't hit the wrong door before you've passed the learning curve. As a matter of fact, the movie "Four Rooms" is a great comical exaggeration of what the "gig" economy is like. If you want research, it's already done.
14
"If workers believe this behavior is not abusive or criminal, but simply bizarre, then the mistreatment of participants in the gig economy is an even bigger problem than statistics can reveal."
Why does the author assume her description of these events is more accurate than that of the people who experienced them?
11
@Phil - Dr. Ravenelle's point was that with this language her correspondents were in a way accepting things that should not be accepted. So if you're in line at the bank and someone comes in and robs the bank you might say, "Boy, that was weird!" And you're entitled to that opinion, but it doesn't change the fact that the act was illegal and potentially harmful to you and the tellers.
9
@Jerry Schulz Right, but something like the example cited of a chef being asked to work at a swingers party is not illegal or abusive. "Weird" seems like a fine way to describe it. It seems the author's definition of "abuse" is egregiously over-broad.
@Phil - Excellent point, and I agree. Note that the chef didn't just work at the party but was invited to join in the swinging--which to me still isn't abusive if you're free to say no. Part of the problem is that these workers by the nature of their work are finding themselves in situations that people like me who spent decades doing boring computer work would not likely encounter.
But the big point is that the workers need to be able to recognize when things HAVE become abusive and to be able to deal with that and ideally be protected from that somehow, which is very tough.
1
The "gig" jobs themselves are the problem. These people are not employees and the standards are legally lower than if they were. Things can be improved, but to make them as safe as normal jobs they would have to become normal jobs with the rules and regulations that come with it.
16
I'm not sure that so-called "gig" jobs should be singled out here. I've worked gigs as a writer/photographer and also freelance trade show work for decades and since I have always been in control of my own spaces for living and working I feel my workplace has been unusually friendly and safe. I understand that is not the case for many gig workers, but this is not something inherent in gig work. A lot of gig workers perform their jobs from the safety of their own homes.
5
Uber is a relatively recent phenomenon -- is this an issue that has faced the regulated taxi industry or is it for some reason confined to the essentially unregulated Uber?
3
@M Clement Hall I believe taxi work has always been relatively dangerous. A friend of mine did it during college and he had lots of stories to tell, including having a gun pulled on him.
4
Lyft doesn't have any customer service to speak of. Maybe a chat bot that you have to dig for 5 minutes in the app to even locate. There's a scam going on right now where riders who cancel rides are charged a $5 fee, not described upfront when you book the ride. This fee is charged no matter why the ride is cancelled, including a no-show driver. And then ANOTHER driver shows up that the rider didn't order… and that second driver gets a $5 cancellation fee as well. When this happened to me, Lyft's canned answer was basically, "Too bad".
So, I haven't used them since.
13
The gig economy is not going away, more likely it will continue to grow. But employers need to be held responsible and gig employees need and deserve protection, fair treatment and *respect*!
15
There should be a video as well as audio recording of the inside as well as external view of all ride sharing services (including cabs). The technology is cheap (less than $200) and the feed should be streamed as well as stored within the vehicle, for say a week.
Similarly, other gig workers should be required to wear body cams (like police officers) when working. Again, the technology is inexpensive.
This should cut down crime and increase prosecutions for reported crime at gig-workplaces.
19
@Cynic in London Increasing prosecutions is the American way, but be aware that we imprison Americans at several times the rate at which Europeans do and all the money we spend on prisons is money we are not spending on higher education.
We Americans love to punish. We are still punishing Afghanistan for something that a Saudi nan, bin Laden did in 2001.
There has to be a better way than prison and prosecution.
9
@Ludwig
Video is a terrific idea. Documenting police abuse with cell phones has changed the perception that the police were always decent and nonviolent.
Nobody's saying there aren't other solutions - but this suggestion is a great one.
1
@Cynic in London
We should be like China and Russia and just record and surveil all human activity for the protection of the common state.
1
What Ms. Ravenelle is describing is the unraveling of personal virtue and restraint that is taking place in our culture. I am not sure any Company can universally protect employees from the wide array of boorish to criminal behavior that the author presents. The US Armed Forces with all of its structure, training and power seems unable to do so. Recognize that blaming employers is simplistic and even if her proposals are implemented the behaviors will continue. Recovering virtue is a daunting task.
29
I’m not sure that virtue is unraveling so much as people are becoming more willing to discuss the bizarre things people ask of or demand from those that render personal services.
There was that allegation of the coal exec who threw a fit and demanded his secretary find his kidney stone in his office. There was the President grabbing women on a whim because “when you’re famous, they’ll let you.” These are at the top, but there’s bizarre behavior at other levels, in office and personal spaces. It’s followed stars like Cosby and producers like Weinstein.
We’re dealing with greater transparency and having to recognize that modernity hasn’t cleaned up the nasty things show biz neglected to reflect for a number of years. #Me too was not a revelation of a new monster, it was one our institutions had chosen not to let some of us see. I bet there’s more there too.
We do need to embrace virtue, make no mistake, but it’s not like trying to relive the 50’s. We weren’t better back then. Our President was, taxes were, the GOP may have been, but we made big steps since then. We pushed the clan out of the way and passed civil rights laws, the misogynists aside to give women life choices, bigots aside so we have equal marriage rights, and we’ve exposed abusers throughout our industry and government.
Our struggle is not to rediscover a virtue we’ve lost, it’s to find ways to spread virtue wider than it’s ever reached. Rules, tech, unions, and other forms of empowerment seem helpful.
34
@HPower
I disagree that virtue is unraveling. In our country's so called glorious past, as a group, nobody but white males could get ahead economically.
Even in the 80's, there was outrage and threats if women dared to object to sexual advances by an employer - as just one example.
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Couldn’t be more disgusted at the failure of the gig economy, especially national and international platforms with substantial revenue streams, to treat their workers (at least their full-time workers) fairly.
The problem, of course, is that these workers are identified as independent contractors, not employees.
The labor laws need to be rewritten to accommodate the gig economy. Meanwhile, these businesses are certainly “disruptive”— to workers.
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NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF DENIAL. The younger generation have been fed the lies about the "freedoms" available in the gig economy. I believe part of the problem lays in the fact that the younger generation have been convinced, through no fault of their own, that labor unions are and were a bad thing. When in fact, the reason that the unions began was through protests against precisely the same sorts of abuses and exploitation of workers by management. This evil was foisted by Ronald Reagan, when he removed the formerly mandatory first clause from articles of incorporation, stating that XYZ proposed to incorporate in order to improve goods and services produced to the ABC community. Beyond that, giving corporations the status of humans further dehumanized workers who are physically human. So believing that they were exercising their freedom as workers and did not require protections from the employers, they were bamboozled into the ride share gig that was governed by the fiction that the sole function of the owners was to provide information on the internet to those who wished to share rides. Interestingly, ebay and Amazon provide consumer protections to those who make purchases. So that could be one possible solution--to consider ride share information as property of value, where the vendor and buyer both are given protections. It looks logical to me to have ride share entities be taken over by places like ebay and Amazon. Ueber and Lyft workers are unprotected.
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General Motors, perhaps the most unionized private company in the country, has been the subject of two class actions decades apart over its tepid response to sexual harassment and assault issues at its plants. Unions are not the answer to any question or issue.
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@John Jones Couldn't agree with you more. And let's not forget that pornography in the workplace is considered "sexual harassment" and yet growing up with it at home is considered "hip and cool" -- and we know it's not. So young people have been fed a pack of lies all in the name of "freedom" which, in Reagan-omics terms, is simply the freedom for someone to make loads of money doing basically whatever they want.
Taxi services are regulated. Regulations come via DEMOCRACY not computer code.
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They don’t want to be tied to the same job and company for 30 years. Otherwise they would get a real job.
"If workers believe this behavior is not abusive or criminal, but simply bizarre"
Many things that are abusive or criminal are also bizarre.
Many non-employees have good reasons to let the bizarre go as weirdness, and just move on. What do they get from prosecution? They lose work time. What do they gain?
There are many reasons people don't pursue criminal prosecutions. The more out on their own they are, the more many of those reasons apply.
An employer could pay them to prosecute, help them, support their efforts, if only to protect all its workers and the work itself. If there is no employer, then none of that applies.
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"Workers believe this behavior is not abusive or criminal, but simply bizarre..." but the author completely disregards the workers' stated feelings and declares that "the mistreatment of participants in the gig economy is an even bigger problem" than statistics show.
Perhaps we should start by listening to the gig workers themselves, and seeing what kind of protections they think would be useful in these situations.
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Maybe part of the answer is to get rid of the fig economy full stop and just give people stable, well-paid jobs? Is that really too hard?
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@KW: Sure, no one ever gets harassed, propositioned, fondled, groped or raped in a conventional workplace setting.
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Are the harassment and assault statistics worse for Uber than for traditional medallion taxis in the same geographic areas?
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@Joel that question would require the professor to do some work.
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Gig economy companies claim they have no duty to protect their 'contractors' because they are not employees. Any complaints that arise during the 'gigs' are handled through arms-length technology and not direct phone contact. Try to reach a live employee at any gig economy company, for any reason, and you will be sadly disappointed. Providing human contact costs money. Money they will not spend to protect their 'contractors'.
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@Markymark Now theres something that should be considered "bizarre". Human contact in the age of technology companies.
Since tech companies have exploded, they, meaning most, want nothing close to human contact. They'll take your money, automated-style of course, but talk to an actual employee? Such a bizarre thought.
Own a company? Trying to change the present social media information? Pick up the phone and speak with someone? Impossible.
Most of these computer nerds have created a society where it is seemingly against the law to speak to a human being. Even when you're willing to pay for the support. It's not allowed.
Who's idea was it to forget about the people who allow your company to stay in business? Now that's bizarre.
An answer, and a critical one is that workers in the gig economy need a union contract that makes sexual harassment and assault as well as sex discrimination a contract violation.
This would allow all union members, female and male to take action for the violation of any contract violation rooted in sexism.
It would also involve all male union members in learning more about sex discrimination and being advocates for their sister union members.
This is no small measure. Europe certainly has as much misogyny as America, but in union shops they have a lower incidence of sexual assault and harassment than we do.
The reason is simple. Men and women have a common interest in protecting all union members from any and all violation of the contract. And this includes violations by male fellow workers as well as male management.
Unionizing the gig economy is critical for basic economic issues as well. But the data from Europe tells us that if we are serious about dealing with misogyny at the workplace we need to expand the base of legal protection that women have from our civil rights laws to our labor laws.
And passage of the Equal Rights Amendment wouldn't be a bad idea either!
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@Chris M No one said that. But a union is better than no union. An isolated worker will lose every time against an organized company that dictates the terms and has lawyers to back it up. Just because an organization or position can be abused by abusive people doesn't mean we just get rid of it. If that were the case, we would have no corporations.
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@Margaret it really depends. I've never been in a Union but my wife was at Columbia.
She would get all of her daily work done by 11am and then spend the rest of the day studying her pre-med coursework.
Her co-workers noticed and told her to be more discrete because they were all under worked and would keep it that way to ensure more jobs.
A University can get away with that.... but take a look at Detroit.
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@Drspock Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, the first major sexual harrassment case in the US, involved female employees at a union mine.
Unions can be helpful if you're being mistreated by your employer. They can be worse than useless if you're mistreated by fellow union members.
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Of course any sexual assault is disturbing, but compared to the total number of rides, the numbers are quite small. How do they compared to other service interactions including taxi rides? That is more relevant to discuss than focusing on the absolute number of assaults.
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How is this any different from other costumer/facing businesses? Servers, bartenders, hotel maids, and traditional taxi drivers all interact with customers who may or may not be impaired. I’d like to see some comparative statistics before concluding that the gig economy poses a particular problem.
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@Anna Many of the described scenarios take place in a private space, a car or the home of the client. People seem to be less inhibited it seems.
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@Karen B.
This type of work has been happening in private spaces for thousands of years. It wasn't invented by Uber. Once upon a time the notion was people in service were not to be seen or heard and they were not supposed to see or hear anything except their next instructions.
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@Sierra Morgan So just because harassment has been around for years means we shouldn't see it as morally wrong or do anything about it now? Would you prefer that service workers be neither seen nor heard? What's your point?
Why are we arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? The gig economy and disaster oligarchy, need to go. Overturn Citizen's United, bring back environmental, labor and human rights enforcement. We have two candidates for the presidency next year who will begin the work of doing that, Sanders and Warren, so lets support them and get on with it.
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@Parapraxis "Overturn Citizen's United"
Citizen's United isn't going to be overturned because McCain-Feingold empowered the federal government to ban political documentaries (and books, according to oral arguments). If you want campaign finance reform, which I think is a good thing, you'd better come up with one that doesn't give the federal government unconstitutional power.
The author discusses mainly Uber and insists on referring to the "sharing" economy as if Uber was a fancy carpool. It is a taxi company whose owners describe otherwise to avoid regulation and having to compensate their drivers. Why do so many of us indulge them in their fraud?
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@Neal Because to do otherwise would cost more money. Same reason we deal with China... costs less. Despite the fact the Chinese have no respect for our copyrights and trademarks. Their own citizens human rights.
We've got an awful lot of educated people in our country. Yet few stop to realize and/or investigate the other side of the coin with such cheap purchasing power. To do so would take money out of wallets.
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@Neal In some places, the alternative is either worse (cabs that refuse to pick up or drop off were you need to, blatantly overcharge, and/or just don't show up), or nonexistent.
I live in an area with a lot of tourism. A few months ago, my car needed some emergency repairs on a Friday. Fortunately, a garage near my job was open on Saturday. I dropped my car off and took the bus home. My job was near a major hotel, but not a bus line. I tried to arrange a cab for the next morning, only to find that local cab services don't schedule rides in advance unless you're going to the airport. The next morning, it took several phone calls to find a cab willing to take me to work. It was 7am, and only 1 company answered the phone. I was 30 minutes late.
When I got out, I tried to get a cab to the garage. No dice, even though I was next to a major hotel. Uber picked me up only because a driver happened to have a fare nearby (not at the hotel).
Until 2 years ago, the state capital had no taxi service after 8 pm or on Tuesdays (except for pre-arranged airport runs).
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@Neal "Why do so many of us indulge them in their fraud?"
The reason Uber and ride-sharing services became so lucrative was due to excessive medallion fees that were ultimately passed onto the customers. That's the real fraud.
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Uhhhhhh, not to minimize the problem, but I seem to recall incidents of sexual harassment occurring before the gig economy existed. And before the 21st century existed. And before the 1st century existed. And before recorded history existed.
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@stevevelo
The is a difference with the gig economy. In an established company with a decent harassment policy, an employee who was harassed or assaulted could (or should) go to go to HR to get support. Similarly, a customer subjected to harassment could go the employer's boss.
But gig industries like ride sharing has deliberately removed those kinds of structural relations of corporate responsibility.
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@stevevevo Sure, but you’re missing the main point. Sweatshops, as a management labor practice were painstakingly eliminated in the 20th century. They returned, in the 21st, with a vengeance, under deceptive labeling as The Next Best New Thing.
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@Nancy B
Although your average human resources department is going to default to keeping things quiet and not biting the authority hand that feeds it.
And a customer going to an "employer's boss" is also a very hit or miss proposition.
The laws need to be strengthened and the penalties made stringent--and unavoidable.
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Alexandrea Ravenelle's concept of the "gig economy" is far too narrow, oriented as it is entirely toward those jobs cpmpletely dependent on the internet. The vast majority of musicians, for example, make their living through gigs, and there is no reason to believe what she writes would apply to them.
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In fact, the term “gig” was originally used to describe the temporary or intermittent hiring of musicians or other performers.
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Different word. The reference in this case is a unit of measure, as in gigawatts for electricity, and in the case of the gig economy, a reference to gigabytes of data.
@James I don't think so, James. The term "gig economy" comes directly from the gigs musicians do.
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Is this happening more or less than it did when people were hired for tasks directly, rather than through intermediary web services that track contacts and provide accountability? I suspect less, not more. Of course the services should provide responses and accountability, but it seems like the likely outcome is better than without such a structure.
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Gigs are jobs for vulnerable people serving other people when they are vulnerable. This is not reflectective of a strong economy in my opinion. Maybe we should understand what has killed off traditional jobs - like FICA, Disability insurance, health insurance, paid leave. putting those on the government dole and taking them off employer mandates may be socialism, but at least it isn't anti-capitalism. There is a huge difference in those two concepts. where we are now, hurts employment for both employees and employers.
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All good points and, in the same way that riders can record negative encounters for their protection using their phones, drivers have the option to install video cameras which can serve as a deterrent when passengers know they might be recorded.
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