Gig Work!

 When I taught I/O SP21, the students had a LOT  to say about gig jobs. I brought it up as a "Future Direction in I/O," and the students expressed much about gig work. Ok, some of it was sharing anecdotes about shady UberEats drivers, but they were engaged in the conversation.

I am going to make it into a meatier conversation this Spring, using these two points:

1) Pew Research gig worker methodology

This Pew article is an interview with two Pew Research methodologists, Colleen McClain and Monica Anderson. This article APPLIES everything we teach our students about in RM. For example, making choices about the type of question (forced-choice, yes or no, etc.) and writing questions for a variety of different KINDS of gig workers (grocery pickers vs. food delivery vs. drivers). It is interesting.

2) The actual data highlighting gig worker diversity and harassment

This isn't just a conversation about a future direction in work. It can also be a discussion about diversity and harassment in the workplace.

Here are some of the actual data from pew (thanks to Ed Hansen for sending this my way!).