The Gig Economy SUCKS - I Have the Scars to Prove It!

#UberEats #Politics #Work

[SultanFriendlyGuest]

Wall to every CEO. 15 years of hard labor in gulag, then wall to each and every one of them.

[bolloggfisch]

Meanwhile, the neoliberal party here in Austria stood on the streets with "free Uber" signs as Uber left the country for a while after being forced to be under some minimal regulations to strongman the parliament

[sndrrz]

Instacart literally just laid off all their unionized workers so good timing with this video.

[KaitlinGaspar]

thanks for making such a personal account, it's very impactful. i appreciate the work you do for this channel!

[melelconquistador]

I fucked up my hands in the oil feilds as contractor for a contractor.

[courtcomposer]

You my friend are a hero. Bringing the truth to the masses. I made a donation to your channel. Thanks!

[Mephiles]

If you lived in the US, your story would be exactly the same and you'd also be thousands in debt from medical bills

[rafaelneumann]

Here in Brazil the work market is just as dreadful. I remember getting the third stage of contracting with a bookstore FIVE times.

In all five times it was the same. We were called in to do a couple of written tests at the store's podium for special events. Every time we were over 50 people, after 2 stages of trimming down the compatition. The tests were basically half and half basic employee ethics (always choose the option that benefit the employer) and the other half obscure trivia to show how much you know about x, y and z subjects to know where to better place you in the store.

Then there were a couple of team-building exercises where you have to figure out the best way to make your employer in the clear and unaccountable for in the scenarios they give you.

Then there is the interview, where they ask every single applicant their name, why you want to work there (I tried "so I don't starve" once. The HR person was not amused) and, finally, the most dreaded question and the one that actually decides if you'll get hired or not. After about 3 hours of faffing about.

"Do you have experience in retail?"

Of course, most people don't. It is a minimum wage gig with very little benefits, bad hours and extremely high turnover (two of my selection processes were only two months apart from each other... In the same store). We were all hoping for a first gig to put in our curriculum and maybe a career if we got any advancement whatsoever inside.

But every time there were several people with experience applying for this job. The kid with two years of experience with his family store. The old guy with THIRTY years of experience but his old employer closed doors or just fired them. The same two or three with half a decade experience in that SAME BOOKSTORE CHAIN. There was just no way to compete. And a couple weeks later, these were precisely the same faces you'd see on the bookstore itself greeting you.

Not my only job hunting story, but certainly the most dehumanizing where I felt the store was actively wasting my time when all it actually cared about was one single qualifying trait, so it would gladly waste 200 + man-hours just to make us dance for their amusement (I'm counting the HR people who have to make this selection on the wasted time). But there was also the time I applied for a job as an English teacher and it got obvious I wasn't called because I said I believed more in cooperation when asked what I would do to instigate competitiveness among my students and what I would do to compete with my co-workers to outshine them.

[Broken_robot]

What a monster she is hitting you, and then speeding away. She's almost as bad as the non-employer employers.

[brianadam]

Talk about a gruesome story! Reminds me of Tom Nicholas’ experience with Deliveroo with more broken teeth.

California passed a law in 2019 that would’ve required gig companies to treat workers like their employees and there was a ~200 million dollar campaign to drum up support for a Proposition to make them exceptions to the new law—and, well... they won in 2020.

It’s crazy how many people thought *making* gig companies an exception was gonna give drivers / gig workers benefits — and it’s crazy the amount of sympathy these companies got, ie like they’re mom and pop businesses.

Totally agree with the video, although I’m skeptical removing the gig economy would create jobs to fill in the gaps; I think the existence of the apps motivates consumption that otherwise wouldn’t happen.

In the same way small restaurants already make small profits, a couple regular delivery drivers might not make enough to justify the payroll; not sure — especially since small businesses are already more likely to provide fewer benefits or better conditions by virtue of having less money.

[chrischickering]

I worked for shiped grocery shopping and it was awful

[sourgreendolly]

Your story really illustrates the problems with the gig economy in a powerful way. I’m speechless, I just know I need to comment so this video gets more eyes on it.

On another note, horror aside, it was nice to hear a more personal story from you.

[naomistarlight]

I remember I got punched, I think as a hate crime for being with my then girlfriend now wife. And like you, I was so much more worried about the fucking cost of the ambulance and medical bills (this is the U.S., so yeah) so much that I didn't want to get in the limo/ambulance, but they told me my injury needed stitches so I went pretty reluctantly. We ended up later marrying just because I needed to get on her health insurance through her employer (were going to anyway, but chose to do it then because I needed medical help for my PTSD nightmares). I'm unemployed except sporadically as a freelancer because my mental illnesses and autism make it hard for me to handle frankly all the abuse and bullying necessary to handle a typical service job. I like that the gig apps mediate interactions between me and the clients because I'm socially inept and have social anxiety. BUT, in addition to gig pay sucking, MEDICAL INSURANCE is a huge deal for gig workers, in the U.S. at least. Because our oligarchy has decided that we workers should have our medical insurance depend on our EMPLOYER. So, if you're on a gig app like Uber Eats or DoorDash, you technically have no employer and get no health insurance benefits. Even though you're risking yourself more for things you talked about like injury on the job, and COVID-19 risk.

[pikkewyn]

Here in Norway people who worked for a good delivery gig company managed to organize and strike, they were quite successful. They got increased payments and also money to maintain their bikes and clothes.

The gig companies has tried to find small holes in the law and since its such a new phenomenon they haven't had difficulties finding flaws in the law.
Many of those that work for these companies are refugees and have lots of language barriers, lack of work experience and often don't know what rights they have here. I'm glad people were able to organise them as now they haven't just had a successful strike but more immigrants working for these companies now know what rights they have.
I find the entire gig economy system quite fucked up, they have made wages into some "game" where you collect xp to get paid a tiny little better. Many have endured sexuall harrasment in fear to getting a bad review.

[Leeqzombie]

I know it's not much, but as an 'independent contractor' myself, when I do use a delivery app or a drive share app, I always tip and in cash. It sucks out there. Solidarity from a fellow Victorian gig worker <3

[adelahogarth]

That sucks ....

And the thing is the gig economy was in its infancy when I first wrked for Australia Post in Sydney.

A night sorting job that paid pretty well ... can't complain. Five weeks paid annual. Decent super. Fit my initially part time university education *fairly* well.Tired as fuck, but I could still work and study.

Where the 'gig economy' aspects of the job were coming into play is the government eliminated all worker's compensation for travel to and from work. So here you are, dealing with shitty Sydney trains, middle of the night, on a trainline where people were routinely bashed and robbed.

And I had to travel on it 5 nights and 6 days a week. All of which when crime is at its highest peaks.

So every single night I was terrified that me in my high vis gear that could be seen from the fucking moon might get bashed, crawling about dark city streets in Western Sydney, often times utterly alone. If I got bashed and robbed by some thugs, I'd have no worker's compensation. If I did get bashed, in all likelihood that would be it. Out of a job. Australia Post would pay me out accumulated sick and holiday leave, and that would be that.

And to reiterate all of this ... My job was *pretty good* and Australia Post was considered one of the 'good ones' in terms of employer rights and awards of work, and even then here I was as an older Millennial constantly worried nearly every night about all the ways I could suddenly become homeless.

It's almost as if education, food, work, housing, electricity, clean water and medical care should be guaranteed by the government as a promise of improving the livelihoods of all Australians indivisbly ... Like how maybe that governments elected by people should be expected to manage the affairs of state to make their lives better every single generation, and with a long term gaze to making sure every generation lives better than the last?

It's almost as if if governments aren't doing this for people, then maybe we should ask them what they're even doing in the first place with the authority and powers they have?

[tradingclasses]

I'm glad you started your channel.

[Anarchistara]

This video comes out at the same time Instacart just ditched nearly 1, 900 of its actual employees without touching its 'independent contractors', and 10 of those employees were union members in the United States. The Gig economy is a tool that is being used to exploit people's needs and the fact that you cannot talk with your co-workers makes it so much worse. It provides constant competition, and is anti-worker, anti-union, and anti-labor. I covered some of the financial side for Instacart and its horrendous. They have more than doubled their value during the Pandemic and have lobbied for laws to keep people in the role of Independent Contactor. Thank you for talking about this. We need more voices on board.

[ForkBombRaja]

So the algorithm put a ubereats ad under this video...

[dracorex]

Isn't YouTube just the gig economy of variety shows?