The gig economy celebrates working yourself to death
By Jia Tolentino
Last September, a very twenty-first-century type of story appeared on the company blog of the ride-sharing app Lyft. Long-time Lyft driver and mentor, Mary, was nine months pregnant when she picked up a passenger the night of July 21st, the post began. About a week away from her due date, Mary decided to drive for a few hours after a day of mentoring. You can guess what happened next.
Mary, who was driving in Chicago, picked up a few riders, and then started having contractions. Since she was still a week away from her due date, Lyft wrote, she assumed they were simply a false alarm and continued driving. As the contractions continued, Mary decided to drive to the hospital. Since she didnt believe she was going into labor yet, Lyft went on, she stayed in driver mode, and sure enoughping! she received a ride request en route to the hospital.
Luckily, as Lyft put it, the passenger requested a short trip. After completing it, Mary went to the hospital, where she was informed that she was in labor. She gave birth to a daughter, whose picture appears in the post. (Shes wearing a Little Miss Lyft onesie.) The post concludes with a call for similar stories: Do you have an exciting Lyft story youd love to share? Tweet us your story at @lyft_CHI!
Marys story looks different to different people. Within the ghoulishly cheerful Lyft public-relations machinery, Mary is an exemplar of hard work and dedicationthe latter being, perhaps, hard to come by in a company that refuses to classify its drivers as employees. Marys entrepreneurial spirittaking ride requests while she was in labor!is an exciting example of how seamless and flexible app-based employment can be. Look at that hustle! You can make a quick buck with Lyft anytime, even when your cervix is dilating.
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