Heroes from above but not (always) from within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

Cameron, Lindsey; Chan, C. K.; Anteby, Michel

doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104179

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…In the formal economy, these groups have led to less risk-taking behaviors in macho work cultures, such as oil rigging and firefighting (Ely & Meyerson, 2010; O’Neill & Rothbard, 2017). Relatedly, customers, organizations, and media need to be prudent regarding moralizing lower-paid workers with higher risk exposure as “heroes,” as this heightens customers’ expectations of workers without providing substantial job-related protections (Cameron et al, 2021; Hennekam et al, 2020). Strengthening the government’s social safety net for contractors—ensuring minimum wage, paid sick leave, and workers’ compensation (Ravenelle et al, 2021)—would allow workers to better meet customers’ expectations without jeopardizing their own health.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risky business: Gig workers and the navigation of ideal worker expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cameron¹,

Thomason²,

Conzon³

2021

Journal of Applied Psychology

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Managers and customers often expect individuals to be "ideal workers" devoted entirely to work, and this devotion is typically displayed through being available to work at any time, on any day (Reid, 2015). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals in lower-paid, customer-facing jobs were expected to not only be available but also to take on physical risk. However, the ideal worker literature has paid relatively little attention to how risk relates to ideal worker expectations, reflecting in part the extant literature's focus on professionals who face relatively little physical and financial uncertainty. In this article, we draw upon the experiences of nonprofessional "gig" workers (TaskRabbit workers) to examine how they manage customers' ideal worker expectations-including risk-using data from interviews (n = 49), postings from online worker forums social media, and offical company communications. We show how these workers engage in different tactics to manage risk in response to customers' expectations, including two tactics-covering and withdrawing-that have not been discussed in prior ideal worker literature. In doing so, we expand scholarly understanding by showing how concerns about risk shape workers' responses to ideal worker expectations, particularly in customer-facing service work outside of traditional organizations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risky business: Gig workers and the navigation of ideal worker expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cameron¹,

Thomason²,

Conzon³

2021

Journal of Applied Psychology

Self Cite

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“…As with any perfect model or exemplar, people’s lives and stories may not fully encapsulate the heroism and ideals described in an archetypal Hero’s Journey but may approximate it to varying degrees, even in their everyday experiences (Franco & Zimbardo, 2006). However, even when their lives share elements of a Hero’s Journey, people may vary in their comfort accepting the mantle of a heroic narrative related to their lives (Cameron et al, 2022). Discomfort with seeing life as a Hero’s Journey can pose a challenge to accessing the range of psychological and physical benefits that can come from embracing a role as potential hero of one’s own story (see Franco et al, 2016).…”

Section: Narrative: Minds and Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing your life story as a Hero’s Journey increases meaning in life.

Rogers¹,

Chicas²,

Kelly³

et al. 2023

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Meaning in life is tied to the stories people tell about their lives. We explore whether one timeless story—the Hero’s Journey—might make people’s lives feel more meaningful. This enduring story appears across history and cultures and provides a template for ancient myths (e.g., Beowulf) and blockbuster books and movies (e.g., Harry Potter). Eight studies reveal that the Hero’s Journey predicts and can causally increase people’s experience of meaning in life. We first distill the Hero’s Journey into seven key elements—protagonist, shift, quest, allies, challenge, transformation, legacy—and then develop a new measure that assesses the perceived presence of the Hero’s Journey narrative in people’s life stories: the Hero’s Journey Scale. Using this scale, we find a positive relationship between the Hero’s Journey and meaning in life with both online participants (Studies 1–2) and older adults in a community sample (Study 3). We then develop a restorying intervention that leads people to see the events of their life as a Hero’s Journey (Study 4). This intervention causally increases meaning in life (Study 5) by prompting people to reflect on important elements of their lives and connecting them into a coherent and compelling narrative (Study 6). This Hero’s Journey restorying intervention also increases the extent to which people perceive meaning in an ambiguous grammar task (Study 7) and increases their resilience to life’s challenges (Study 8). These results provide initial evidence that enduring cultural narratives like the Hero’s Journey both reflect meaningful lives and can help to create them.

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“…For instance, in a qualitative study of health care workers in France, Hennekam, Ladge, and Shymko (2020) found that nonphysician health care workers considered their sudden hero status temporary and viewed it with skepticism. In another qualitative study on this topic, Cameron, Chan, and Anteby (2022) reported that gig workers who accepted the hero label felt morally credentialed and did not put forth extra work effort, while those who wrestled with the label felt the need to earn that status through extra effort at work. Furthermore, Yuan, Cockburn, Astrove, and Buis (2021) conducted a series of surveys intended to measure the general population's attitude toward essential workers.…”

Section: Society and The Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

Bolino,

Henry,

Whitney

2023

Journal of Management

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On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and organizational life around the world changed dramatically overnight. In response, there has been a flurry of management research that seeks to understand the wide-ranging implications of this crisis. In this article, we summarize a scoping review of 69 articles that focused on management issues during the pandemic to understand how it affected individuals, teams, leaders, organizations, and society at large. We also identify and discuss the theoretical perspectives that were prominent in these investigations. We conclude by identifying directions for future inquiry with a mind toward research questions that are likely to be relevant in a postpandemic workplace and note some implications for management scholarship as well.

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Heroes from above but not (always) from within? Gig workers’ reactions to the sudden public moralization of their work

Cited by 18 publications

References 80 publications

Risky business: Gig workers and the navigation of ideal worker expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Risky business: Gig workers and the navigation of ideal worker expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seeing your life story as a Hero’s Journey increases meaning in life.

Management Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

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