
My Life as a TaskRabbit - nsedlet
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-13/my-life-as-a-taskrabbit
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mik4el
What kind of risk/liability does these "employees" generally take? Like
washing someone's unlocked car, is the employee liable for any damages or the
company? If I'm do carpenting work distributed from TaskRabbit and hurt myself
so badly I get disabled, do TaskRabbit have insurance for me? What is the
standard for this? One reason why buying services is expensive is that the
service provider takes risk and needs to insure their workers, I very much
doubt that these TaskRabbit-type companies do that... Or am I wrong?

~~~
gbhn
This is a huge point. A single uninsured mistake with an expensive car could
potentially wipe out carwashing earnings for months. (See
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4492619>)

~~~
mik4el
This could be mitigated by TaskRabbit cooperating with an insurance provider
and selling "insured" work. There are great margins on insurance as we all
know. In their TOS TaskRabbit basically says "TaskRabbit.com Only Provides a
Venue" (check it out: <http://www.taskrabbit.com/tos>). Why don't some retail-
insurance megacorp approach them? This could be TaskRabbits no1 source of
income instead of their no1 problem...

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egypturnash
> I call Chris Mok, a top-ranked local TaskRabbit who earns up to $1,500 a
> week. Mok was laid off from his job as an art buyer at Macy’s (M) in 2009
> and now spends most days, including weekends, on handyman assignments such
> as assembling Ikea furniture.

TaskRabbit: Distributed underemployment.

~~~
tomjen3
Sorry to say but there is no such thing as underemployment. Clearly there are
less need for art buyers (or he wasn't good enough to do the job) than there
were in 2009, so he has to do something else.

~~~
chimeracoder
People grossly overuse (and abuse) the term unemployment like this.

First, an unemployment rate of 0% is _bad_. This is because not all
unemployment is bad.

Frictional unemployment is actually a _good_ thing (to a certain extent),
because the alternative is having people stuck doing jobs they don't want when
better jobs are available.

Structural unemployment is what happens when $old_industry dies because
$disruptive_tech_company changes the market. It's definitely bad for the
unemployed (who will never be re-employed in the same field), but it's usually
the result of positive improvements to society at large. The 'solution' is
that those people losing their jobs need to be retrained to work in another
field, which is admittedly difficult, or retire.

Cyclical unemployment is undeniably bad. That's the result of boom-and-bust
economies - people over-hiring during bubbles, and then having to lay off en
masse when the market contracts. (The problem is largely that the people are
being dumped into the jobs marketplace all at once, creating a glut, instead
of being more evenly distributed).

The rest - someone who's employed but at a salary lower than what they'd like,
or someone who retires because they're laid off... _that's not unemployment_.
Someone may dislike it and they may think it's a 'problem' that needs to be
'fixed', but they need to realize that they're talking about something
completely different from unemployment.

As for _real_ unemployment, the ideal value is a point of debate amongst
economists because it is tricky to measure, but somewhere in the ballpark of
5% is a commonly accepted value for the target 'natural rate' of unemployment.

That is, a sustained, unwavering value of 5% unemployment is actually the
target for a healthy economy.

~~~
lotharbot
The term used was un _der_ employment.

~~~
chimeracoder
Please take the time to read through my comment, and you'll see that I address
this - 'underemployment' is a misleading term that not only conflates several
distinct concepts but also implies a connection with something that it's not.

It's like using the term 'intellectual property' when discussing the Pirate
Party vs. MPAA. Aside from the fact that patents and copyrights are
_completely different legal concepts_ , the word 'property' already implies a
right to ownership[1] that one side asserts doesn't exist to begin with.

[1] '...inalienable rights... Life, Liberty, and Property' - Declaration of
Independence (first draft).

~~~
MaysonL
Underemployment: how about the difference between U6 and U3? That seems like a
reasonable first cut, and this guy seems to possibly fit.

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guelo
I had a bad experience as a TaskRabbit buyer. There was a dispute between me
and the task worker as to whether the task was complete. The worker went ahead
and marked the task as complete and TaskRabbit deducted my credit card. The
dispute resolution process was a convoluted and manual process which I didn't
have time for (which is why I was using TaskRabbit in the first place). It
wasn't a huge amount of money so I let it slide.

I can see why TaskRabbit might be biased towards paying for the task
automatically after the agreement has been entered, the alternative would be
to make it easy for the buyer to screw the workers over, but it seems like
they probably need an easier dispute process or they'll lose the buyers, I
know I'm not using them again. I guess the worker ratings is supposed to help
with this but I couldn't quickly figure out how to rate the worker and
TaskRabbbit didn't make it easy by sending me an email about it or something
like that, so I just gave up.

~~~
lengarvey
At Airtasker (an Australian competitor) we take the approach that it'ds an
open marketplace and both sides need to confirm that the task is complete
before money exchanges hands. We've found it's very, very rare that the buyer
will "screw over" the runner.

Also it seems much easier for us to scale up new runners than it is to get
more task posters.

It's super fun working for a startup that is focused on real-world
interactions. Situations like the one you describe are difficult to deal with
and definitely highlight the value of good community management and customer
service. It's a shame that TaskRabbit let you down. Maybe in the future if
Airtasker expands to the US you can give us a try :P

Disclaimer: if it wasn't obvious I work for Airtasker.

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lobster45
My view on this is this is another example of a free market system of supply
and demand. If you have an individual willing to spend money on having their
lunch delivered or their car washed without moving a muscle, and on the other
side you have someone that is willing to do the work, then it is win win.

~~~
tomjen3
Its is better than than. It is the answer whenever somebody comes around and
complains that software is destroying jobs and not creating new ones.

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fumar
I became a task rabbit almost three weeks ago. I have bid on at least thirty
jobs. I have spent a total of 5 hours checking the site for jobs. I have not
been assigned one task. I have applied for several graphic design gigs. Most
people want a logo designed for thirty to fifty dollars. Some people want
ebooks created from word documents for under a hundred dollars. The hard labor
tasks is where the money is. Those jobs depend on bidding low and fast.

It is an interesting place. There are many companies that use TaskRabbit as
their recruiting agency. They post jobs that require to sign up on their
websites.

Overall, I have to stop wasting my time on it. I intern(unpaid) at a startup
that was planning on using TaskRabbit as delivery service. I thought it would
be good (could be fun) income.

edit: this is from my experience in Chicago

~~~
autophil
_Most people want a logo designed for thirty to fifty dollars. Some people
want ebooks created from word documents under a for hundred dollars._

I would expect those prices too if I went through TaskRabbit. I wouldn't
expect the designer to be a top professional. I'd be looking for a deal.

My advice (and I've been working freelance for about 7 years) is to brand
yourself as a top shelf designer and never offer your services on outsourcing
websites. Go hyper niche instead in a category where you have some contacts
and can get work fast.

If your designs are amazing, word gets around. Pretty much all new business I
get is from word of mouth.

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unohoo
The one thing I have always wondered -- how would these companies scale ?
These models work well in areas with a high population density (eg: SF, NYC,
major city downtowns etc.). How well will they work when they spread out to
the suburbs ?

~~~
dangrossman
What's wrong with most of their users being in the major cities? Look at
Craigslist.

~~~
silverbax88
When you sign up as a hiring person, they only have a few major cities you can
sign up in. I don't reside in any of those cities, so despite having work for
people, I have no use for the service, at least not yet.

