Uber’s executive in charge of changing the company’s culture, which has been rife with abuse at all levels, has announced that she is leaving the position after less than a year. Her achievement during that time: An executive education program.
Cultures, even ones as tightly managed as a corporation, can’t be changed in just a few months, and they certainly can’t be changed with just an educational service available to executives. Corporate culture extends far out beyond managerial elites. Corporate culture is constructed through the interactions of every member of a social group. In corporate culture, that extends out to customers, and to the independent contractors who deal with them.
Independent contractors are the opioid of corrupt corporate culture. Corporations keep their profits high by burning through independent contractors like heroin in a dirty glass pipe. Corporations get the labor of contractors who are dependent upon them and who typically work far longer hours than they would at a traditional full time job, but without any benefits, without unemployment protections, and without any guarantees of income.
A new report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reveals just how badly Uber’s independent contractors – the drivers who actually do the work of picking customers up and transporting them – are being burned by the supposedly reformed executives at Uber headquarters.
To be fair, it’s not just a problem at Uber. It’s an industry-wide abuse by the so-called “ride sharing” companies.
The MIT research found that drivers at Uber and Lyft earn a median of only $3.77 per hour. 74% of Uber and Lyft drivers make less than minimum wage, and a third of them actually lose money while working.
Imagine trying to live on just $3.77 per hour. Imagine working hard all week, only to discover that you had lost money while the corporation you work for had made money from your labor.
If you have an Uber or Lyft app on your phone, you own part of the responsibility for these companies’ abusive corporate cultures. Every time you get a cheap ride from a Lyft or Uber driver, you’re choosing to profit from the exploitation of that driver.
Alternatives are available to you. You can call a cab. You can walk. You can use public transportation.
Do the right thing. Delete Uber and Lyft from your phone.
