TL;DR: Some nannies, house cleaners, and elder care workers don't have access to, or know how to effectively use, a smart phone. As a result, they're left out of apps that help you find a nanny, or some other type of domestic worker.
There is no app that is actively "Wrecking Nannies' Lives."
There's also this part: "This was a common complaint among care workers we interviewed: that their industry is being flooded with people who are new to care work, who see it as supplementary income rather than as a profession and undercut their wages."
The title is pretty awful, but when the gig marketplace model devalues your work so much - why participate in it?
I understand Uber & Lyft are the exception here, they really have tanked the finances of traditional cab drivers. On the other hand, I think most of the other services offered this way can really be circumvented by differentiating yourself as better than the gig workers.
Anyone have any anecdotes about other industries being impacted like this?
> I think most of the other services offered this way can really be circumvented by differentiating yourself as better than the gig workers.
Do you have any evidence to back up this thought, or are you postulating that the world should be this way?
If you're looking for evidence to the contrary, the article on which you commented has some anecdotes about how it is no longer possible to circumvent these services.
>The title is pretty awful, but when the gig marketplace model devalues your work so much - why participate in it?
Because you need to put food on the table, and many industries and jobs are eroding and people are forced to go for desperate BS gigs.
Not everybody is a computer programmer having "offers" from "recruiters" and taking their pick. Or can even afford (or has the capacity) to go back to school.
> The title is pretty awful, but when the gig marketplace model devalues your work so much
Why do you say that? You said yourself the model these apps use "devalue[s] [their] work so much." Given these people were already poor before this model, and these apps devalue their work further, the title seems apt.
> but when the gig marketplace model devalues your work so much - why participate in it?
> I understand Uber & Lyft are the exception here, they really have tanked the finances of traditional cab drivers. On the other hand, I think most of the other services offered this way can really be circumvented by differentiating yourself as better than the gig workers.
Because you're forced participate, since that's where the employers for your profession are:
>> But this industry has, until recently, operated largely informally, with jobs secured by word-of-mouth. That’s changing, as employers are increasingly turning to Uber-like services to find nannies, housecleaners and other care workers.
>> ...
>> This was a common complaint among care workers we interviewed: that their industry is being flooded with people who are new to care work, who see it as supplementary income rather than as a profession and undercut their wages.
>> Another woman in Atlanta told us that her years of experience were devalued by parents who had access to a huge number of potential nannies. “It’s like, this is my bread and butter!” she said. “I’m not working for no nine, 10 dollars an hour. Those kind of people want to undermine your faith in your ability.”
I think gigs are ill suited to child care and home cleaning. One bad apple can ruin your life, so you should be super cautious when hiring. We have had the same nanny and the same cleaner for 2+ years.
Price should not be the main factor. Minimizing risk of getting a bad apple is the most important thing, and this is not well done by the current batch of gig apps. Gigs optimize labour fluidity, which is the opposite of what you want.
Yes, we found this incredibly frustrating when trying to find a house cleaner. Everyone's optimizing to have the lowest bid for those sites that give you 4-5 quotes with little to differentiate them but price. There are people who could maybe offer better service for a higher price, but the gig sites totally optimize against that.[1]
8 comments
[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 30.9 ms ] threadThere is no app that is actively "Wrecking Nannies' Lives."
Really awful title.
I understand Uber & Lyft are the exception here, they really have tanked the finances of traditional cab drivers. On the other hand, I think most of the other services offered this way can really be circumvented by differentiating yourself as better than the gig workers.
Anyone have any anecdotes about other industries being impacted like this?
Do you have any evidence to back up this thought, or are you postulating that the world should be this way?
If you're looking for evidence to the contrary, the article on which you commented has some anecdotes about how it is no longer possible to circumvent these services.
Because you need to put food on the table, and many industries and jobs are eroding and people are forced to go for desperate BS gigs.
Not everybody is a computer programmer having "offers" from "recruiters" and taking their pick. Or can even afford (or has the capacity) to go back to school.
Why do you say that? You said yourself the model these apps use "devalue[s] [their] work so much." Given these people were already poor before this model, and these apps devalue their work further, the title seems apt.
> but when the gig marketplace model devalues your work so much - why participate in it?
> I understand Uber & Lyft are the exception here, they really have tanked the finances of traditional cab drivers. On the other hand, I think most of the other services offered this way can really be circumvented by differentiating yourself as better than the gig workers.
Because you're forced participate, since that's where the employers for your profession are:
>> But this industry has, until recently, operated largely informally, with jobs secured by word-of-mouth. That’s changing, as employers are increasingly turning to Uber-like services to find nannies, housecleaners and other care workers.
>> ...
>> This was a common complaint among care workers we interviewed: that their industry is being flooded with people who are new to care work, who see it as supplementary income rather than as a profession and undercut their wages.
>> Another woman in Atlanta told us that her years of experience were devalued by parents who had access to a huge number of potential nannies. “It’s like, this is my bread and butter!” she said. “I’m not working for no nine, 10 dollars an hour. Those kind of people want to undermine your faith in your ability.”
Price should not be the main factor. Minimizing risk of getting a bad apple is the most important thing, and this is not well done by the current batch of gig apps. Gigs optimize labour fluidity, which is the opposite of what you want.
[1] I'll plug the folks we ended up finding, who are awesome: https://www.maidsinblack.com.