Over the past decade, online labour platforms have increased dramatically, such type of work inherently brings specific hazards. We had the pleasure to interview Pierre Bérastégui, Researcher at the ETUI, author of the publication "Exposure to psychosocial risk factors in the gig economy - a systematic review".

​​​​​​Starting from the very beginning, what are psychosocial risks?

That’s definitely a good starting point. Psychosocial risks cover all the aspects of the work environment that are likely to affect mental health. Typical examples include having to work on tight deadlines, the lack of involvement in making decisions, ineffective communication or conflicting demands. They are called “psycho-social” because they pertain to the influence of social factors on workers' psychological response.

And speaking of psychological response, psychosocial risks all share one thing in common – they result in work-related stress, which, in turn, is causing or aggravating several disorders such as depression, anxiety or sleeping disorders. […]

One more important thing to mention is that psychosocial risks are both cumulative and interactive. Cumulative because a worker being exposed to multiple risk factors is more likely to suffer from mental health issues. And Interactive because the association between stress and other disorders is bidirectional. For instance, stress is causing sleeping disorders, but not being able to sleep at night is also causing stress.

So basically, psychosocial risk factors trigger a vicious circle that, once in place, is hard to escape from without eliminating the root cause.

Are gig workers particularly exposed to psychosocial risks?

Well, there is still a lack of quantitative studies demonstrating the magnitude of these issues, but early research suggests that gig workers are indeed especially at risk. For instance, about 20% of crowd workers suffer from major depression, a prevalence about three times higher than the average population.

In your report, you mention that gig workers experience challenges in three broad areas: physical and social isolation, algorithmic management and digital surveillance, work transience and boundaryless careers. Let's unpack the first one, why is platform work physically and socially isolating?

It is certainly nothing new to say that human beings are social animals. Social interactions obviously play a major role in wellbeing, and for many individuals, a great share of these interactions actually comes from work. Besides enhancing life satisfaction, socializing at work reinforce workplace relationships, and also acts as a protective shield against work-related stress.

In the gig economy, however, social interactions are scarce. Work is performed individually, without contact and often in competition with fellow workers. The direct manager is replaced by a mobile app tracking and monitoring gig workers’ activity. And interactions with clients mainly consist of quantitative and impersonal feedbacks delivered through the app.

Consequently, many gig workers feel physically and mentally disconnected from other human beings. This is even more problematic for gig workers providing digital services because, well… they don’t even physically meet with the client. This is the case of online freelancers operating on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, where the entire process of contracting, executing but also delivering assignments is taking place remotely.

Professional isolation and the absence of a shared workplace is giving rise to multiple psychosocial risk factors, such as a lack of social support, difficulties in trying to balance work and family life, and also a lack of meaningfulness at work.

On the second area, what is algorithmic management and how does it impact workers?

Algorithmic management is the mean used by platforms to supervise gig workers remotely. It can be defined as a set of supervision and control practices that are driven by mathematical algorithms. And by assuming HR duties, these algorithms are given the responsibility for making decisions that affect the worker.

But automated decision-making requires a substantial amount of accurate data, which can only be achieved by intensively tracking workers’ activities and whereabouts. Constant monitoring allows accurate predictions of workers’ behaviours which are then turned into managerial decisions, such as identifying the most capable workers and distributing tasks accordingly.

There is evidence that constant monitoring and automated managerial techniques contribute to an increasingly hectic pace of work and a lack of trust towards the platform. Also, algorithmic management limits gig workers’ opportunities to voice their concerns and to contest managerial decisions.

More specifically, can you tell us a little bit more about nudging and gamification? What does this imply?

Most platforms rely on automated nudges to influence workers behaviours. And this indeed includes elements of gamification, such as gratification badges and target incomes for instance. These persuasive mechanisms have been demonstrated to effectively stimulate productivity in a way that is predictable for platforms.

For instance, the ‘Uber quest feature’ rewards drivers with a bonus for completing a specific number of trips within a given timeframe. Similar to video games, the app provides a stimulus when workers reach a milestone – in this case, a small firework combined with a pleasant tune.

Another example of Uber’s nudging practices is ‘surge pricing’.

Surge pricing? What does this mean?

It refers to the practice of charging more for a trip during periods when it is in high demand, for a specific geographic area. It is built-in within the app through heat maps, incentives and push up notifications at key moments – including when drivers are about to log off.

Besides increasing work pace and overwork, surge pricing also increases competition between drivers, and therefore prevent the emergence of solidarity, collective action and interest formation among workers.

But ‘surge pricing’ and the ‘Uber quest’ feature are just two examples of a wide portfolio of control mechanisms used by platforms to influence gig workers’ behaviour.

You mention that temporariness, or rather how you put it, transcience is quite understandably creating a huge amount of distress for workers. How does this manifest itself and why does it come about?

In the traditional labour market, workers can still expect some form of continuity in employment. Most organisations provide some clarity regarding expected career paths, and guide individuals through potential future roles. In the gig economy, however, work mostly consist of short-term assignments which leave subsequent work relationships up in the air. Also, the self-employed nature of platform work implies that gig workers are solely responsible for their own economic upkeep and career planning.

What is often presented by platforms as an opportunity for variety and autonomy actually burdens workers with managing the growing complexity of their working lives. Many gig workers actually have to browse multiple platforms and combine many sources of income to ensure a decent living.

In your report you clearly demonstrate that gig work is not a side hustle for a large chunk of the workforce, can you expand on this?
Yes, contrary to conventional wisdom, a great share of gig workers heavily depends on the income they generate through platforms. For instance, platform work constitutes more than half the income of 30% of gig workers in Italy, Sweden and the UK.

From an occupational health-and-safety perspective, such dependence and uncertainty give rise to persistent feelings of insecurity, and also to high emotional demands. In order to preserve employability, gig workers feel pressed to be exceptionally affable, to tolerate inappropriate behaviours and to leave no wish unanswered – which can be emotionally exhausting and stressful.

Deliveroo’s marketing explicitly offers workers the opportunity to ‘be your own boss’ and ‘earn great money’, we have often proposed the image of on-demand work with the hipness of bike messenger culture. In your report, however, quite rightfully, show a rather bleak picture. Can you perhaps elaborate for us on the poor career prospects of gig workers?

Well, there is obviously a double-speak. Platforms like Uber and Deliveroo claim that they offer autonomy and independence but, gig workers remain subject to subordination and dependence relationships with the platform. As we discussed, some of these control mechanisms are more insidious than others, but they are all put in place to ascertain workers’ full compliance.

Even if some workers appreciate the relative autonomy over which assignments to take and when to fulfil them, they remain subject to intensive forms of surveillance and control that will, in turn, limit other aspects of their autonomy. In that sense, the perceived independence from managerial control does not actually result in more autonomy for gig workers.

Besides, the inner workings of these platforms hinder professional development, and thereby prevent gig workers from building up a valuable portfolio of skills. In fact, platforms are designed in a way that prevents gig workers from ‘climbing the ladder’ and accessing roles with more responsibility within the platform. Consequently, many gig workers have a hard time finding work outside the gig economy.

For these reasons, the “be your own boss” narrative is at best illusory, and at worst serves to mask a grimmer reality. Gig work is like ‘quicksand’, trapping individuals in a cycle of financial vulnerability and low-skilled work – not allowing them to stabilise their professional and personal life.

Is this a long term shift? In your recent article “gig workers, the guinea pigs of the new world of work” you show a grim prospect, digital surveillance, work fragmentation… are becoming mainstream. Can you possibly expand on this?

At first glance, working conditions in the gig economy may be regarded as ‘atypical’ due to the innovative technology involved. But the structural characteristics of platform work are not entirely new to the world of work. In fact, platform work combines and extends three long-standing trends: a trend toward flexible work arrangments and shorter job tenure; the gradual disappearance of the physical workplace; and a trend towards more control and surveillance.

Has the pandemic heightened this?

Absolutely, these last two trends have been magnified by the pandemic. Recently, many companies announced extended work-from-home policies, and some even decided to allow employees to work from home permanently. Major companies such as Twitter or Facebook publicly announced a long-term shift to permanent telework. […] So, the world’s largest work-from-home experiment that is Covid-19 may accelerate the transition to a new era of remote-only companies.

With office-centredness slowly becoming a thing of the past, addressing professional isolation and digital surveillance is all the more important – with far-reaching implications going well beyond platform work. Addressing these issues is essential, essential to safeguard working conditions of gig workers, but also essential to ensure a socially responsive transition to the new world of work.

Photo credits: Johnstocker