The Temptation Every Gig Worker Needs To Avoid
This story is based on actual events.
Heather works as a pharmacist through a temp agency. The agency assigns her to Family Drugstore, a small mom-and-pop pharmacy. She is curious and personable, which impresses the pharmacy staff. Her efforts to get the hang of things portrays her as a proactive self-starter. Because she's a quick learner and helps with as much work as possible, her first day goes well. In fact, Family Drugstore's manager schedules Heather for a month's worth of shifts.
Because of the good news, Heather makes a subtle, and fatal, mistake.
You see, Heather's goal for learning the workflow wasn't so that she could do her best work. Instead, Heather does this to figure out what she can get away with. Now that she's has a month' of work, she bets that Family Drugstore won't get upset enough to complain or confront her. She begins to check her phone more, letting work pile up. She picks up the phone less. If there are notes left for her, she ignores them because she deems the assigned tasks too difficult. She is even willing to risk letting other bosses see her "looking busy" in place of actual production.
Heather also doesn't work hard every day because other companies are recruiting her. She likes the attention. After all, if she's in such high demand, Family Drugstore should be willing to show grace, she thinks. Despite Family Drugstore giving her a month of work, she takes a job with a different pharmacy. She cancels after one week of work. Family Drugstore has to scramble to cover the remaining three weeks of shifts.
In Heather's eyes, she didn't do anything wrong. If Family Drugstore wasn't willing to add her to its payroll, why should she give her best effort?
She didn't leave Family Drugstore on bad terms. But did she leave on good ones?
If we're honest with ourselves, most of us fall into two camps. One is admitting we'd do what Heather did. The second is acknowledging the same temptation, even if we resisted it.
If you are a gig worker like Heather, what should you keep in mind when you want to dare others to give you a bad review?
Who you are is how you work. Sometimes, a boss will hire a friend needing a job. This is a risk, because success of the choice depends on what the friend is willing to do with the boss's generosity. Is this friend going to be a good steward of the favor and work extra hard? Or is he going to slack off because his boss is "cool" and would never fire him? Friendships go south because the person receiving the favor didn't come through. A bad work ethic will ruin the strongest friendship. Heather happens to be vocal about her faith. But no one could hear it over her lack of work ethic.
Your network is smaller than you think. You never know how past encounters will affect your future prospects. Even if you burnt some bridges in the past, there is a civil way to move forward. Bad work experiences won't condemn you. A refusal to learn from them will. To keep potential work lined up, it's in your best interest to stay humble, learn, and grow from each job you've had.
Everything you do affects your reputation.Atomic Habits author James Clear has mentioned how little things add up. Every step you take to do the necessary and difficult, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction. Every step you take to avoid challenges costs you an opportunity to improve.
Avoiding consequences is not a win. People like Heather are content to avoid the fallout from slacking off. Then, before things get awkward, they hop to the next gig, repeating the same act until they need to jump ship again. If your doors start closing even though you didn't get fired, consider possible ways you dug your own hole.
Set the following day up for success. Do the next shift a favor. If you aren't around to solve the next day's problems, leave a note with details. Better yet: in that note, give them a few steps so they can handle the challenges with certainty. If Heather had done this, how much stronger would her case have been for Family Drugstore to hire her?
The key to navigating the gig economy well? Work hard enough to earn referrals. Not only one, but many. It seems like common sense, but you'd underestimate how many temps like Heather lose sight of it. Don't be one of them.
