At the Uber for home cleaning, workers pay a price for convenience

Re:At the Uber for home cleaning, workers pay a price for co... by lpolovets on Friday September 12, 2014 @03:17PM (#8309876)

For an anecdotal counterpoint, I started using Homejoy about 2 months ago. I've had 5-6 different cleaners at this point. I asked the last 3 cleaners what they think of working for Homejoy and they unanimously replied that they love it. The pay is pretty good and all three said that they love how Homejoy gives them jobs and then gets out of the way.

I wonder if the worker in the article is representative of most Homejoy cleaners. He takes the bus to get across town, which turns a 2.5-hour cleaning into a 5-hour task. I think all of the cleaners I've had so far have cars, so in those cases, they're making $50 for 2.5 hours of work and maybe 15-60 minutes of commuting, instead of 150 minutes of commuting. The economics are much better in that scenario.

My anecdotes do not address the issues of workers comp or unemployment insurance, but the people I've met through Homejoy so far seem very happy to work there.

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Re:At the Uber for home cleaning, workers pay a price for co... by discardorama on Friday September 12, 2014 @04:18PM (#8310205)

> they unanimously replied that they love it

If I were an employee, I'd say that too. Especially given that they are rated by the clients. If you were badmouthing your own employer, the chances of you getting a 5-star rating are significantly lower.

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Re:At the Uber for home cleaning, workers pay a price for co... by lpolovets on Friday September 12, 2014 @04:23PM (#8310239)

That's a great observation. I agree, though I felt like the people I talked to were more effusive than they would have been out of obligation. (That is, they could've said, "It's nice." instead of gushing for 5 minutes.)

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