La tête dans le guidon

Abstract

Deliveroo is a home delivery platform that employs more than 9,000 couriers covering cities all across France - a flexible and autonomous workforce classified as independent contractors so the company can avoid any semblance of subordination. At the same time, Deliveroo still tries to wield power over its workers, thanks notably to its working time organisation. The study uses participant observation as well as a physical testing of courriers’ social activities to ascertain how an individualised management of working times ends up being weaponised against workers. Different types of time pressure affect the way people organise their schedules and indeed their physical activities. The end result is to give the company a workforce that is stable, docile and effective.

Keywords

• time pressures
• work organisation
• deliveroo
• participant observation