Understanding the paradox of high job quality evaluations among platform workers

Abstract

This article examines why food delivery platform workers evaluate their job quality as high despite known drawbacks of this type of employment. Using qualitative data obtained from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with couriers in Slovenia, the study employs a job quality model consisting of four distinct components (psychological well-being, social satisfaction, economic stability, and health and safety) as a conceptual framework used to determine which elements contribute most to the general job quality evaluation. Findings show that couriers often acknowledge the financial challenges and potential health and safety risks associated with their occupation but are willing to overlook some of these drawbacks due to how highly they value the autonomy, freedom and favourable work-life balance platforms offer. This article argues that platform companies, characterised as permissive entities which still hold a significant amount of power over the labour process, take advantage of the workers’ desire for autonomy and the large worker turnover to continue precarious employment practices. This is additionally fuelled by poor management practices and interpersonal relationships in traditional employment, which often push workers into platform work with no human supervisor, where they can “be their own boss”.