Should I Stay or Should I Go? Ride-hail Driver Reactions to Uber’s Covid-19 Response

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been a disruptive event for most workers, it has disproportionately affected low-skilled occupations; one such example are platform (gig) workers contracted by ride-hail companies (e.g., Uber, Lyft) to transport passengers. Grounded in psychological contract theory and platform labor research, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a conceptual model of ride-hail drivers’ affective and cognitive reactions to Uber’s (lack of) commitment to safe working conditions after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing a sample of Uber drivers from the United States (n = 202), we show that when drivers’ perceptions of Uber’s commitment to safety were unfavorable, they were more likely to experience feelings of psychological contract violation, which in turn increased their cynicism toward Uber and decreased trust. But while trust in Uber was negatively related to drivers’ intentions to withdraw from their occupation, organizational cynicism only predicted withdrawal intentions for those drivers who did not believe that they had many job alternatives available outside of platform work. We draw on the emerging literature on situational diversity and economic dependence among platform workers to discuss this unexpected finding.