This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A rideshare driver picks up a passenger who makes repeated unwanted sexual comments. The ride ends, but the experience doesn't.
The driver may still feel anxious, distracted or angry long after the passenger leaves. Those feelings can carry into the next ride, affecting how the driver works and interacts with other customers. New research suggests these encounters can have consequences that extend well beyond the moment.
But the findings also point to a potential source of protection: having access to a worker organization or other form of collective support. Published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, the study, "You Are Not Alone: Access to Collective Representation Buffers the Harmful Impact of Customer Sexual Harassment on Gig Workers," examines how harassment affects workers in the gig economy and why having someone in their corner can make a difference. "Many gig workers do their jobs alone and interact with customers without co-workers, supervisors or other bystanders present," said Tianjun Sun, assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice and co-author of the study.
"In many cases, they are confronting these situations largely on their own." Led by Yijue Liang of George Mason University, the research brings together scholars from Rice, Texas A&M University and George Mason to examine a workplace problem that has received relatively little research attention. For rideshare drivers, delivery workers, housekeepers and others who provide services directly to customers, harassment can range from unwanted sexual comments and propositions to inappropriate touching. Unlike employees in traditional workplaces, gig workers may have no supervisor to contact, co-workers to intervene or clear procedures for reporting incidents.
The researchers identified two distinct psychological responses that help explain how these experiences can affect workers' behavior. The first, psychological distress, involves feelings of anxiety, uneasiness or emotional exhaustion. Workers experiencing this distress may withdraw from their responsibilities, slow down or put less effort into their work.
The second, known as self-threat, occurs when harassment challenges a worker's sense of dignity, competence or control. That response was associated with more negative interactions with customers. "A harmful customer interaction can drain a worker's psychological resources in different ways, and those reactions can carry over into how they perform their job and interact with people afterward," Liang said.
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