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"At the end of the day, I am accountable": Gig Workers' Self-Tracking for Multi-Dimensional Accountability Management

Rie Helene Hernandez, Qiurong Song, Yubo Kou, Xinning Gui

TL;DR

Problem: while platform tracking is well-documented, less is known about gig workers' self-tracking and its motivations. Approaches: 25 semi-structured interviews with gig drivers and reflexive thematic analysis identify three self-identities driving self-tracking. Contributions: empirical portrait of holistic, entrepreneurial, and platformized self-tracking; discussion of self-tracking as invisible labor and its role in reducing information/power asymmetries; design implications for multi-dimensional tracking. Significance: informs HCI, policy, and worker advocacy by highlighting the need for worker-centered, transparent tracking tools in the gig economy.

Abstract

Tracking is inherent in and central to the gig economy. Platforms track gig workers' performance through metrics such as acceptance rate and punctuality, while gig workers themselves engage in self-tracking. Although prior research has extensively examined how gig platforms track workers through metrics -- with some studies briefly acknowledging the phenomenon of self-tracking among workers -- there is a dearth of studies that explore how and why gig workers track themselves. To address this, we conducted 25 semi-structured interviews, revealing how gig workers self-tracking to manage accountabilities to themselves and external entities across three identities: the holistic self, the entrepreneurial self, and the platformized self. We connect our findings to neoliberalism, through which we contextualize gig workers' self-accountability and the invisible labor of self-tracking. We further discuss how self-tracking mitigates information and power asymmetries in gig work and offer design implications to support gig workers' multi-dimensional self-tracking.

"At the end of the day, I am accountable": Gig Workers' Self-Tracking for Multi-Dimensional Accountability Management

TL;DR

Problem: while platform tracking is well-documented, less is known about gig workers' self-tracking and its motivations. Approaches: 25 semi-structured interviews with gig drivers and reflexive thematic analysis identify three self-identities driving self-tracking. Contributions: empirical portrait of holistic, entrepreneurial, and platformized self-tracking; discussion of self-tracking as invisible labor and its role in reducing information/power asymmetries; design implications for multi-dimensional tracking. Significance: informs HCI, policy, and worker advocacy by highlighting the need for worker-centered, transparent tracking tools in the gig economy.

Abstract

Tracking is inherent in and central to the gig economy. Platforms track gig workers' performance through metrics such as acceptance rate and punctuality, while gig workers themselves engage in self-tracking. Although prior research has extensively examined how gig platforms track workers through metrics -- with some studies briefly acknowledging the phenomenon of self-tracking among workers -- there is a dearth of studies that explore how and why gig workers track themselves. To address this, we conducted 25 semi-structured interviews, revealing how gig workers self-tracking to manage accountabilities to themselves and external entities across three identities: the holistic self, the entrepreneurial self, and the platformized self. We connect our findings to neoliberalism, through which we contextualize gig workers' self-accountability and the invisible labor of self-tracking. We further discuss how self-tracking mitigates information and power asymmetries in gig work and offer design implications to support gig workers' multi-dimensional self-tracking.
Paper Structure (31 sections, 1 figure, 5 tables)

This paper contains 31 sections, 1 figure, 5 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Accountability and Gig Work
  4. Self-Employed and Contractor Accountability
  5. Gig Worker Accountability
  6. Personal Informatics and Gig Work
  7. Workplace and Productivity Tracking
  8. Gig Worker Self-Tracking
  9. Methods
  10. Participant Recruitment
  11. Data Collection
  12. Data Analysis
  13. Findings
  14. Personal accountability to the holistic self
  15. Generating self-knowledge
  16. ...and 16 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: The Accountable Self of Gig Workers. Continuous lines represent gig workers' accountability to various parties, while broken lines depict potential accountability among these parties. Within the holistic self, the rational self is accountable for the emotional self, as discussed in 5.1. Platforms are accountable to the government for legal and regulatory compliance. Platforms and customers hold mutual accountability, primarily focused on trust and reliability.