Healthy, resilient and flexible: Co-developing a mental health intervention for and with frontline gig workers: a systems approach

2019冠状病毒病疫情凸显了一线零工（如快递员、出租车司机和家庭护理员）在维持经济和我们生活方面的重要作用，即使其他一切都停止了。然而，他们中的许多人在越来越多地融入零工经济的行业工作，零工经济倾向于将工人归类为自营职业者，将平台归类为科技公司，因此后者不承担雇主责任。这不可避免地导致对这些工人的健康和安全支持不足。这是一个令人担忧的问题，因为最新的研究表明，在零工经济中开车的人中，道路事故和鲁莽驾驶行为很常见。对快递员和护理人员职业倦怠的系统评价也显示了高水平的职业倦怠和一系列与技术相关的风险因素。虽然灵活条款的标准化工作件的好处对一些人来说是真实的，但对大规模调查的分析进一步揭示了多样化的零工工人群体。结果中的一个主要模式表明，依赖平台作为主要收入来源和个人财务压力可能会加剧平台工作对心理健康的影响。也就是说，那些在经济上苦苦挣扎的人或那些无法为他们提供更有保障的就业的人更容易受到平台剥削做法的伤害。因此，一线工作人员所做的工作实际上是高要求，低控制，最少的支持，所有这些都有助于职业倦怠。随着零工经济的不断扩大，职业倦怠已成为一个主要问题，可能会进一步影响工人的身心健康，安全和福祉。目前，针对一线工作人员并旨在减少工作倦怠的干预研究很少。因此，我们建议填补差距，并开发一个系统级的数字干预，将干扰和中断平台系统的算法，以防止过度的工作压力。这将与关键利益攸关方合作开发，包括工人，平台提供商和技术开发人员，专家和政策制定者。我们还将积极与合作平台合作，共同设计干预措施并评估其可行性。如果在本提案中证明这是可行的，我们将进一步与该行业合作，并确保更多资源来更大规模地实施它。

One thing the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted is the essential role of frontline gig workers - such as couriers, taxi drivers and home carers - in keeping the economies and our lives going, even when everything else has come to a halt. However, many of them work in sectors that are increasingly integrated into the gig economy which tends to categorise workers as self-employed and platforms as technology companies, and hence the latter bear no employer responsibilities. This inevitably leads to insufficient health and safety support for these workers. This is a worrying concern as latest research has revealed that road accidents and reckless driving behaviour are common among those who drive in the gig economy. Systematic reviews about burnout among couriers and carers also revealed high level of burnout and a range of technology associated risk factors. Although the benefits of standardised work pieces on flexible terms is real for some, analysis of large scale surveys shed additional light on the variegated gig worker population. A major pattern in the results suggested that dependency on the platform as a main income source and personal financial strain can exacerbate the mental health penalties of platform work. That is to say, those who struggle financially or with a background which does not afford them more secured employment are more vulnerable to the exploitative practices of the platforms. Hence, the job that frontline gig workers do is in fact high demand, low control, and with minimal support, all of which contribute to job burnout. As the gig economy continues to expand, job burnout has become a major concern which could further affect workers' physical and mental health, safety and wellbeing. Currently, intervention research that targets frontline gig workers and aims to reduce job burnout is scarce. Hence, we propose to fill the gap and develop a system-level digital intervention that will interfere with and interrupt the algorithm of platform systems, in order to prevent excessive work stress. This will be collaboratively developed with key stakeholders, including the workers, platform providers and technology developers, experts and policy makers. We will also actively engage the co-op platforms to co-design the intervention and assess its feasibility. If this is proven feasible within this proposal, we will further engage with this sector and secure more resources to implement it on a larger scale.