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High Score, Low Pay: Why the Gig Economy Loves Gamification (theguardian.com)
Ostracus writes: Using ratings, competitions and bonuses to incentivise workers isn't new -- but as I found when I became a Lyft driver, the gig economy is taking it to another level. [...] The language of choice, freedom, and autonomy saturate discussions of ride hailing. "On-demand companies are pointing the way to a more promising future, where people have more freedom to choose when and where they work," Travis Kalanick, the founder and former CEO of Uber, wrote in October 2015. "Put simply" he continued, "the future of work is about independence and flexibility." In a certain sense, Kalanick is right. Unlike employees in a spatially fixed worksite (the factory, the office, the distribution centre), rideshare drivers are technically free to choose when they work, where they work and for how long. They are liberated from the constraining rhythms of conventional employment or shift work. But that apparent freedom poses a unique challenge to the platforms' need to provide reliable, "on demand" service to their riders -- and so a driver's freedom has to be aggressively, if subtly, managed. One of the main ways these companies have sought to do this is through the use of gamification.
Simply defined, gamification is the use of game elements -- point-scoring, levels, competition with others, measurable evidence of accomplishment, ratings and rules of play -- in non-game contexts. Games deliver an instantaneous, visceral experience of success and reward, and they are increasingly used in the workplace to promote emotional engagement with the work process, to increase workers' psychological investment in completing otherwise uninspiring tasks, and to influence, or "nudge," workers' behaviour. This is what my weekly feedback summary, my starred ratings and other gamified features of the Lyft app did. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that gamifying business operations has real, quantifiable effects. Target, the US-based retail giant, reports that gamifying its in-store checkout process has resulted in lower customer wait times and shorter lines. During checkout, a cashier's screen flashes green if items are scanned at an "optimum rate." If the cashier goes too slowly, the screen flashes red. Scores are logged and cashiers are expected to maintain an 88% green rating. In online communities for Target employees, cashiers compare scores, share techniques, and bemoan the game's most challenging obstacles.
Simply defined, gamification is the use of game elements -- point-scoring, levels, competition with others, measurable evidence of accomplishment, ratings and rules of play -- in non-game contexts. Games deliver an instantaneous, visceral experience of success and reward, and they are increasingly used in the workplace to promote emotional engagement with the work process, to increase workers' psychological investment in completing otherwise uninspiring tasks, and to influence, or "nudge," workers' behaviour. This is what my weekly feedback summary, my starred ratings and other gamified features of the Lyft app did. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that gamifying business operations has real, quantifiable effects. Target, the US-based retail giant, reports that gamifying its in-store checkout process has resulted in lower customer wait times and shorter lines. During checkout, a cashier's screen flashes green if items are scanned at an "optimum rate." If the cashier goes too slowly, the screen flashes red. Scores are logged and cashiers are expected to maintain an 88% green rating. In online communities for Target employees, cashiers compare scores, share techniques, and bemoan the game's most challenging obstacles.
I think it's in Tom Sawyer - he gets the kids to paint a fence for him fer nowt by making them think it's a game.
Diddit-de-doo, Diddit-de-dooooo, Diddit-de-doo, Diddly diddly diddly diddly doo doo
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Which means burnout, which results in how to game the system, which results in cheating and theft and high turnover. Disposable workers == disposable companies == disposable investors == disposable customers, basically management by psychopath, so the system works until it blows up taking the company with it. The gig economy is just sly PR=B$ for piece labour, labour camp labour, you have a job today, you can leave the camp to work and when work is over you return.
The gig economy you choose when you work but wait a fucking minute you can not choose to live no where, eat nothing, be naked, cold and wet and be shot by law enforcers for being a homeless nut. There is no choice in the gig economy in capitalism, straight up worker exploitation, work for peanuts or starve and die and the people who take home the bulk of the profits, do none of the labour.
The gig economy to be functional would require a base pay from the government and the gig is extra, otherwise societal collapse, just the way it is.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
That's not gamification, it's micromanagement. It's simply reminding employees that big brother is always watching and don't you dare let your performance flag. If it were not tracked... if management had the decency to let employees motivate themselves that wouldn't be a bad thing. This is evil.
The hidden costs, as rtb61 mentioned, are also real: burnout, high turnover, and theft. I would add to that a huge loss in self-motivated improvement and in innovation. If you boss is riding your tail not only will you do the bare minimum to keep him off but when you see something that can be done better you've already spent all your shits hating your boss and your job. You won't have any to spare for helping others, recommending changes, or other optional, beneficial behaviors.
Just like delusional Trump voters who want deregulation because the 'evil gubermint' is trying to tax their money. They'd rather let billionaires have tax cuts than paying a little bit more taxes because they think one day they'll be the rich guys.
really concerned as to why and how lyft and uber drivers are being psychologicall hoodwinked....
If your company is based solely on competition as opposed to collaboration you can screw over anybody. Look at their business model, taxis annoyed people because they were slow, cost too much, unresponsive, heavily regulated and unwilling to upgrade their services.
Uber used that as their entrance to the market.
Make the deal sweet at first to attract drivers so that they compete with taxis, sweeten the deal a bit for a while, then boil the frog. Uber's relationship with their drivers is one to one. Making drivers compete with each other means they are never in a position to co-operate with each other to secure a better deal for themselves. I doubt a driver has much contact with other drivers so they are in a prime position to be screwed over with greed and isolation.
Uber are a nightmare that people haven't woken up to.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Only those who claim to be smart buy into gamification, while it really is dumbing you down or keeping you dumb, tedious, and an added layer of bloat and management that acts as a deflection of real issues.
Won't someone PLEASE think of the rich billionaires??
Anyway I've never been a big fan of that book. It's the same one that said crime went down because we legalized abortion.
So? If you wish to refute Freakonomics on abortion and crime, make your argument. Otherwise you're just saying "I don't like that book." I don't like Justin Biever, but realize that noone GAF about that.
Note the irony: Slashdot is gamified discussion. It's one of the pioneers in getting people to provide value in exchange for meaningless-ish points on the Internet, in fact.
Is that why every time I go to Target, the cashier spends 30 seconds collecting my purchases before scanning anything? Gamification is fucking poisonous.
How about they start dropping some loot ? I've always said the carrot works better than the stick.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?