Gig Workers Managing Risks During the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Lindsey Cameron, Bobbi Thomason, Vanessa Conzon

July 23, 2022

Keywords: gig workers, Task Rabbit, risk, COVID-19 pandemic

If you’re like most Americans, food delivery services such as DoorDash and Instacart, and handyperson services such as TaskRabbit and Handy have become part of your everyday vocabulary. Indeed, during the pandemic, more and more individuals have turned to these platforms for essential services to avoid the risks of conducting transactions in-person. But in doing so, the risk of in-person interactions is shifted, from those hiring gig workers to the gig workers themselves. How do these frontline service workers manage the physical risk of working during the pandemic?

In a recently published article in the Journal of Applied Psychology, we examine how gig workers are managing the physical risk associated with the COVID-19 pandemic while, at the same time, appearing as “ideal workers” (i.e., devoted, always available and willing to take-on risks, in the name of customer service). From our research, we identified four tactics workers use to manage risk. When passing, workers present as ideal workers while protecting themselves in ways that are not visible to the customer (e.g., switching to only remote services). When revealing, workers openly protect themselves in ways that deviate from customer expectations (e.g., asking customers to leave the room while working). When covering, workers deviate from customers’ expectations, but refocus customers’ attention on how they are otherwise ideal workers (e.g., reframing their own mask and glove wearing as care and concern for the customers). And, fearing for their health, some workers withdraw by leaving the platform altogether.

This research provides insight into the complex world of frontline service work, which includes in-person gig work. While prior research has focused on individuals’ availability as the central mechanism to signal that they are “ideal workers” we identify a different mechanism: taking on physical risk. Additionally, implicit in workers’ accounts was a risk trade-off between physical and economic risk. For instance, refusing to be in the same room as customers could lower ratings and diminish workers’ chances of being hired in the future. In contrast, when workers wanted to earn more money– and, by extension, mitigate economic risk– they often took on any physical risk even if it jeopardized their own health through potential exposure to COVID-19. Although the pandemic has highlighted this risk trade-off for gig workers in particular, it is, in fact, faced everyday by many other workers who are potentially exposed to the virus through routine contact, including couriers, counselors, and teachers. Our research also suggests several practices that can mitigate the negative consequences of risk, such as forming communities on

Facebook and WhatsApp to share strategies and experiences or customers and organizations minimizing the “hero” labeling of lower-paid essential work that can mask the riskier aspects of the work. Our study shows that risk is becoming part and parcel of work, and workers need to be equipped to manage it.