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!). 

Crash Course videos for I/O

The Crash Course YouTube channel contains a series of well-edited, well-researched, close-captioned, engaging educational videoes. Like, there are so many terrible-but-well-intended educational videos out there. And there is so much terrible content on the Internet. But Crash Course is the real deal. I use their videos extensively in my Stats class and their Psychology content is also good.

They don't have an I/O psychology series, but they do have a Government and Politics series. This series covers a lot of I/O ground in terms of employment laws and discrimination. So, the content isn't being explained through the lens of I/O psychology, but I think it may stick with your students better to have it emphasized that the ways we try to promote workplace fairness aren't just nice or right, they are the law. Here are three great videos that you could use in I/O:

Sexual Harassment

Affirmative Action

Discrimination