The new ways of working combine flexibility, partial works, coworking among others and are almost always associated in web platforms or social networks. It is the case in Chile of the specific labor field of The Promoters and Hosts of events, who are captured for this type of work by different digital media such as Facebook groups where they generate shared spaces of experiences that account for the precariousness of the item due to the way of hiring (impersonal, v.a chat, without employment contract).
These Facebook groups generate virtual communities where workers are guided by comments from others on the ways of operating different agencies, on people with false profiles that offer sex work, multiple “funas” for non-payment, delay, bad treatment, etc.. In this way, a trust is generated through the digital platforms as a search for work contained by a community that has reactions to bad experiences.
The “funa” to companies and contractors accounts for the null citizen agency in terms of going to the labour inspection given the perception of slowness, bureaucracy and inefficiency. In this way, the digital “public” way becomes a more effective and immediate way of informing the working community about mistreatment and work experiences.
The background of this phenomenon (which is also replicated in other “informal” jobs) is related to the emergence of a multitude of young people of productive age who do not qualify or do not wish to work in more stable jobs, realizing a lack of awareness and interest in labor rights, normalizing practices of precarious labor in search of flexibility and immediacy of the item.
Facebook Group Case: Promotoras y Anfitrionas Santiago. 22,611 members (created on July 20, 2016) A Facebook community of young people working as promoters and hosts is formed, where stories and denunciations of bad experiences are made, as well as requests for recommendations and job offers. This collaborative experience is almost entirely confined to the Metropolitan Region. There are an average of 20 publications a day, including job offers, personal experiences, job applications, among others. By being in this network, work is requested directly in the Facebook group, trusting that it will be among the members of the group and that it will be “reliable”. Likewise, multiple complaints are published for non-payment, which questions the legitimacy of the members of the group, reflecting an exposure to job insecurity.
Research results will be presented on the type of collaboration and the most common forms of self-help and heterohelp in a context known as crowdworking. A community that is effective insofar as it has a large number of people available, competes among them to obtain a job (lowering costs in personnel selection) and that implies the conformation of a collaborative community.
Researchers: Andrés Gómez Seguel, Camila Ponce Lara and Natacha Leroy
