I agree, it seems they saw a bunch of phones hanging in a tree, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt it is an existent phenomenon, but would also question

I agree, it seems they saw a bunch of phones hanging in a tree, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt it is an existent phenomenon, but would also question the extent. It's interesting because the case here is that the gig worker wants to behave like an employee, basically polling the system and taking a job without evaluating it is akin to getting assigned it. It feels like the flip side of what you normally see. Now the problem here is the why, that is necessity, desperation. And the who, which is that it seems some parties might be predating here, snapping up the gigs and basically scalping/arbitraging them. The part I grapple with is that it's certainly unfair for companies to utilize gig workers and expect employees. Is it just as wrong for a company to stand by and watch their gig workers sort of organize themselves into employees?