Coronavirus Exposes Workers to the Risks of the Gig Economy
https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-exposes-workers-risks-gig-economy/
For the past nine years, Mandolin Noir has taken care of other people’s pets around Seattle, often working through companies like Rover and Wag. The work is steady; she visits the dogs when their owners are at work, and checks in on the cats when owners travel out of town. But in the past week, she’s faced a cascade of cancellations. Her clients who work for Amazon and Zillow have been asked by their employers to stay home because of Covid-19, and vacations have been cancelled. Now Noir is trying to find a full-time job—no easy task when half of Seattle is shut down, and the local health department said the disease was “spreading more rapidly” in the county on Tuesday.
“Suddenly all of my work has disappeared,” she says. “I have enough money to pay bills through next month and that’s it.”