Gig Subcontinent #8: Isolation

Another aspect described in Vandana Vasudevan’s OTP Please is isolation.

 

As everyone orders meals, members of the same house begin to order at different times. Gone is the catching up time as a family. On a related note, as one interviewee told the author:

“Coffee shops are no longer places to socialize. People come to cafes to be alone with their laptops.”

Quick commerce makes going to the grocery store redundant. And with fewer people coming to the shop, some of them close down, setting off a cycle.

 

Unlike those of us who work at offices, schools or colleges, gig workers don’t even get to interact (much) with co-workers since they are all on the move. Plus, attrition is high, so even the few one may know switch work frequently. Interactions with HR are through the app only.

 

Loneliness and lack of human contact aside, this also leads to the “atomization” of the workers. If they don’t know each other, how can they possibly group up to raise grievances with the company or setup? It is a paradoxical setup:

“Having a peer group but rarely, if ever, meeting them; being part of a company and not knowing the supervisor’s name or where the local office is…”

 

The buyer too experiences this. With no need to step out or meet anyone, they too become increasingly isolated. Casual conversations begin to die out.

 

Increasing isolation, both for the gig worker and the customer, are unintended side-effects of the gig economy.