The Year in Tech, 2024: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

8 DEHUMANIZATION IS A FEATURE OF GIG WORK, NOT A BUG

by Eric M. Anicich

Of course Friskies Shreds wet cat food was on the bottom shelf of the last aisle I checked. It was just that kind of day. As I crouched into a kneeling position to inspect the inventory, I scanned the customer’s order glowing back at me on my smartphone: “Any seafood shreds with and without cheese. Twenty cans variety of flavors.” But doesn’t “variety of flavors” contradict the more specific request for “seafood shreds with and without cheese”? Or maybe the seafood category includes multiple flavors? Am I overthinking this?

As a business school professor—and, importantly, not a cat owner—my experience that day was atypical. As a driver for Postmates, however, it was ...