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I feel it's not my business to understand Uber's intent with the ratings. They ask me for my honest rating, on a scale that goes from 1-5. Why should we assume

I feel it's not my business to understand Uber's intent with the ratings. They ask me for my honest rating, on a scale that goes from 1-5. Why should we assume that 1-4 are essentially saying "fire this person", and only one value means keep them. I find it particularly absurd. I routinely rate 2, 3, 4, etc. based on my own gauge. What Uber wants to do with that data is their prerogative.

seem_2211 7y ago
Well congratulations for sticking it to the low paid drivers in the name of defending your ego. I agree that the rating system is stupid, but also that there's a position of power that comes with being a rider. Assuming you had a safe, pleasant journey, it should be a 5 star journey. If the driver was objectively rude, the car dirty, or you felt unsafe, then obviously that's a good case to rate someone lower.
crazypyro 7y ago
Right, but most people would still look at the effect of their actions on other people, even if indirectly. Same reason I always rate customer service reps a 5 (unless something really appalling happened). Most companies would prefer you not provide feedback at all than provide a lower 5 rating on a 1-5 scale. Sure, you don't have any responsibility to understand what is going to happen with the ratings, but once you do, it seems overly punitive to give low ratings.
Bartweiss 7y ago
I think this is basically a argument that star ratings are worthless, rather than that using all 5 stars makes more sense. Obviously, many Uber drivers do keep >4.6 ratings for extended periods. And since most people presumably don't know about the 4.6 rule, it's not a collective concession to Uber's standards; people are just genuinely rating drivers 5 stars much of the time. I recommend (to everyone interested) asking a few friends how they use star ratings, on Uber or anywhere else. My experience is that people say all of "I give three stars for average", "I give four stars for average because we're used to grade inflation", and "I give 5 stars unless there was a reason to subtract from it". Given that, star ratings without explicit guidance on meaning are sort of a disaster. I'm not so much annoyed by which number Uber ties people's livelihoods to as by the whole decision to use a bad system when so many better ones are available.
esoterica 7y ago
You are a shit human being if you go around willfully endangering people’s livelihoods and smugly justifying it to yourself by deflecting the blame onto Uber. The question any moral person asks themselves before they perform an action is “am I hurting someone by doing this”. Not “can I hurt people and then rules-lawyer the blame onto someone else”.
- matt-attack 7y ago
  I'm not the one firing anyone. If Uber makes the absurd decision to fire someone before they have a 4.2 rating, that is entirely on them. If I tell you to sing the National Anthem all day and all night, or else I'll kill my neighbor, would you be at fault if you opt not to and and as a result I choose to kill my neighbor?
m-p-3 7y ago
Yeah, I would assume that 3/5 is the basic minimum, not 4.6.. Either Uber should review their baseline, and make it explicit that giving 4 or below will have severe consequences on the driver.
shriphani 7y ago
I would reserve the high standards for some other setting (tech workers perhaps). Driving uber is worse than retail - nearly 100% of work is customer facing, the environment is cutthroat and many drivers can't catch a break (financial pressure, hard times that sort of thing). And uber has huge surplus of drivers - they are going to cull hard, and driver volume will still be high in their major profit centers.

seem_2211 7y ago

Well congratulations for sticking it to the low paid drivers in the name of defending your ego. I agree that the rating system is stupid, but also that there's a position of power that comes with being a rider. Assuming you had a safe, pleasant journey, it should be a 5 star journey. If the driver was objectively rude, the car dirty, or you felt unsafe, then obviously that's a good case to rate someone lower.

crazypyro 7y ago

Right, but most people would still look at the effect of their actions on other people, even if indirectly. Same reason I always rate customer service reps a 5 (unless something really appalling happened). Most companies would prefer you not provide feedback at all than provide a lower 5 rating on a 1-5 scale. Sure, you don't have any responsibility to understand what is going to happen with the ratings, but once you do, it seems overly punitive to give low ratings.

Bartweiss 7y ago

I think this is basically a argument that star ratings are worthless, rather than that using all 5 stars makes more sense. Obviously, many Uber drivers do keep >4.6 ratings for extended periods. And since most people presumably don't know about the 4.6 rule, it's not a collective concession to Uber's standards; people are just genuinely rating drivers 5 stars much of the time. I recommend (to everyone interested) asking a few friends how they use star ratings, on Uber or anywhere else. My experience is that people say all of "I give three stars for average", "I give four stars for average because we're used to grade inflation", and "I give 5 stars unless there was a reason to subtract from it". Given that, star ratings without explicit guidance on meaning are sort of a disaster. I'm not so much annoyed by which number Uber ties people's livelihoods to as by the whole decision to use a bad system when so many better ones are available.

esoterica 7y ago

You are a shit human being if you go around willfully endangering people’s livelihoods and smugly justifying it to yourself by deflecting the blame onto Uber. The question any moral person asks themselves before they perform an action is “am I hurting someone by doing this”. Not “can I hurt people and then rules-lawyer the blame onto someone else”.

matt-attack 7y ago
I'm not the one firing anyone. If Uber makes the absurd decision to fire someone before they have a 4.2 rating, that is entirely on them. If I tell you to sing the National Anthem all day and all night, or else I'll kill my neighbor, would you be at fault if you opt not to and and as a result I choose to kill my neighbor?

m-p-3 7y ago

Yeah, I would assume that 3/5 is the basic minimum, not 4.6.. Either Uber should review their baseline, and make it explicit that giving 4 or below will have severe consequences on the driver.

shriphani 7y ago

I would reserve the high standards for some other setting (tech workers perhaps). Driving uber is worse than retail - nearly 100% of work is customer facing, the environment is cutthroat and many drivers can't catch a break (financial pressure, hard times that sort of thing). And uber has huge surplus of drivers - they are going to cull hard, and driver volume will still be high in their major profit centers.