Risky Business: Gig Workers and the Navigation of Ideal Worker Expectations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cameron, Lindsey D.; Thomason, Bobbi; Conzon, Vanessa M.
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania; Boston College
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000993
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 1821-1833
• 关键词: ideal worker; SERVICE WORK; on-demand/gig economy; RISK; COVID-19 pandemic

摘要

Managers and customers often expect individuals to be ideal workers devoted entirely to work, and this devotion is typically displayed through being available to work at any time, on any day (Reid, 2015). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals in lower-paid, customer-facing jobs were expected to not only be available but also to take on physical risk. However, the ideal worker literature has paid relatively little attention to how risk relates to ideal worker expectations, reflecting in part the extant literature's focus on professionals who face relatively little physical and financial uncertainty. In this article, we draw upon the experiences of nonprofessional gig workers (TaskRabbit workers) to examine how they manage customers' ideal worker expectations-including risk-using data from interviews (n = 49), postings from online worker forums social media, and offical company communications. We show how these workers engage in different tactics to manage risk in response to customers' expectations, including two tactics-covering and withdrawing-that have not been discussed in prior ideal worker literature. In doing so, we expand scholarly understanding by showing how concerns about risk shape workers' responses to ideal worker expectations, particularly in customer-facing service work outside of traditional organizations.