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Carlye Davis

Dr. Haslam

English 1010/Intro to Writing

November 13, 2020

All Pain, No Gain

Jia Tolentino’s “The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death” was

published on March 22, 2017 on “The New Yorker”, in response to a story which appeared on

the company blog of the popular ride-sharing app, Lyft. In the article, Tolentino scolds corporate

big shots for glorifying employees who, because their employer has failed to compensate

adequately, sacrifice their well-being for the sake of earning an extra buck.

Tolentino begins her article by relaying a story Lyft shared about one of their drivers,

Mary, on the company blog. Mary, a Chicago Lyft driver, was nine months pregnant and one

week away from her due date when she decided to go driving for a few hours and pick up a

couple of riders. During the drive, Mary began having contractions but, according to Lyft,

assumed they were false alarms and continued to drive. However, the contractions continued, so

after dropping off her riders, she began driving to the hospital but remained in “driver mode” on

the Lyft app. As a result, she got another request for a ride. She accepted, completed the drive,

and then returned to the hospital where she had a baby girl. In Lyft’s post, the baby is wearing a

onesie that says “Little Miss Lyft”. Lyft concluded the post by praising Mary for such excellent

dedication to her work, but Tolentino counters that Mary had no choice but to keep accepting

rides due to the horrible pay/healthcare compensation offered by Lyft to its drivers.

Tolentino continues to highlight many other examples in which companies like Lyft

comfortably sit back and watch as their employees work themselves to death for little to nothing.
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One such example is the company, Fiverr, which, similar to Lyft, is an online freelance

marketplace in which services can be purchased for as low as five dollars. Tolentino discusses

Fiverr’s employee recruitment campaign, “In Doers We Trust”. One ad for this campaign

proclaimed, “You eat coffee for lunch. You follow through on your follow through. Sleep

deprivation is your drug of choice. You might be a doer.” Tolentino continues to point out the

flaws in this sort of work and how, as a nation, we’ve learned to praise the overwhelmed

employee but never question the underwhelmed employer.

In “The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death”, Jia Tolentino successfully

shames corporate giants by thoroughly addressing their point of view and then countering with

the support of logos and pathos.

“The essentially cannibalistic nature of the gig economy is dressed up as an aesthetic”

(Tolentino). Americans are preached to their whole lives about “the American dream” - the

prospect of starting from the bottom and working to the top. This is the scope through which

Tolentino believes these corporate giants justify the hours, conditions, and compensation their

employees must endure. “At the root of this is the American obsession with self-reliance, which

makes it more acceptable to applaud an individual for working himself to death than to argue that

an individual working himself to death is evidence of a flawed economic system” (Tolentino).

This is the premise for the argument/counterargument which Tolentino outlines in her article.

Tolentino uses logos to support her argument that the “American Dream”/American

economic system is flawed. “Lyft does not provide its drivers paid maternity leave or health

insurance. (It offers to connect drivers with an insurance broker, and helpfully notes that ‘the

Affordable Care Act offers many choices to make sure you’re covered.’) A third-party platform

called SherpaShare, which some drivers use to track their earnings, found, in 2015, that Lyft
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drivers in Chicago net about eleven dollars per trip” (Tolentino). These kinds of earnings further

support the hypothesis that Mary, the Chicago Lyft driver, continued accepting rides while in

labor because making a few extra bucks seemed more important than “seeking out the urgent

medical care that these quasi-employers do not sponsor”. Tolentino also discusses faults in the

company, Fiverr. Fiverr has thousands of listings of tasks (i.e. designing book covers, recording

songs, etc, etc) that its gig employees will complete for as low as five dollars. However, Fiverr

raised a hundred and ten million dollars in venture capital by November 2015 (Tolentino). For

such cheap services, this kind of capital is extraordinarily large. To bring in this kind of money,

Fiverr’s employees must be working around the clock, constantly consumed by their five dollar

tasks. “It does require a fairly dystopian strain of doublethink for a company to celebrate how

hard and how constantly its employees must work to make a living, given that these companies

are themselves setting the terms” (Tolentino). In a scolding tone (that the author frequently uses

throughout the article), Tolentino uses these statistics followed by supporting elaboration to grab

the attention of the intended audience (the heads of these corporations), comparing wages of

employees to employers, and urging the employers to do more.

Pathos is the primary tool used by Tolentino to support her argument. Pathos is prevalent

beginning in the introduction where the author tells the story of Mary, the Chicago Lyft driver.

This story makes the reader sympathize with Mary because, as Tolentino explains, despite being

in labor, Mary forced herself to continue accepting rides as a result of the lack of financial care

provided by her employer, Lyft. Pathos is also used in abundance when discussing what the life

of a Fiverr employee must be like. Tolentino argues that no one should support a company who

admits that their employees are sleep deprived. “No one wants to eat coffee for lunch or go on a

bender of sleep deprivation” (Tolentino). One of the last stories Tolentino illustrates in an
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attempt to gain emotional appeal is that of the classic “man who walks ten miles to and from

work every day”. “I’ve come to detest the local-news set piece about the man who walks ten or

eleven or twelve miles to work… The story is always written as a tearjerker, with praise for the

person’s uncomplaining attitude; a car is usually donated to the subject in the end. Never

mentioned or even implied is the shamefulness of a job that doesn’t permit a worker to afford his

own commute” (Tolentino). Like Tolentino mentioned, these types of stories are meant to be

“tearjerkers”, shown to make the viewer feel inspired. However, Tolentino uses pathos to evoke

an opposite effect when describing the same story. She uses this story to make the intended

audience, corporate giants, feel shame. Tolentino attempts, through this story, to put the

employer in the shoes of the employee. How would they feel if they had to trek, day after day, to

a job that hardly provides them with enough to survive? Tolentino uses pathos to illustrate the

struggle of these gig economy employees, pulling at the heart strings of their employers, urging

them to do more.

While ethos was not used as heavily in this article, it is demonstrated through the sources

used by Talentino. Though she may not be an expert in the field of economics or labor, she cited

works and authors that are. Readers can rest assured that Tolentino is well-informed. From

income statistics gathered through SherpaShare (a company used by Lyft drivers to track

earnings) to the books “A Cool Million” and “Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of Great

Depression” which describe a centuries-long battle with fair treatment of American workers,

Tolentino has an abundant network of sources and facts. This helps to ensure the article’s

credibility.

Jia Tolentino’s argument was structured very effectively. Through her use of repetition,

pathos, and logos, she was able to scrutinize the structure of the gig economy, as well as those
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who keep it afloat. Her use of logos outlined how little gig workers are truly compensated, her

use of pathos painted a vivid picture of the financial, physical, and mental struggles these

workers must endure. In addition, as Tolentino continually restated her main idea, the reader

never lost the article’s focus.

Word Count: 1328

Works Cited

Tolentino, J., Kolhatkar, S., & Gimein, M. (2017, March 22). The Gig Economy Celebrates

Working Yourself to Death. Retrieved October 30, 2020, from

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/the-gig-economy-celebrates-working-

yourself-to-death
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Oliver Anderson’s annotations:

-I love how well you have explained this portion. The flow is just phenomenal. Amazing job here.

-This confused me. It might be just me but I got really confused here. Just read over and fix it up if
possible!

➔ I didn’t change the sentence that corresponded to this annotation because he didn’t clarify
why it confused him, and after having my mom and dad read over it, we can’t understand
what about it was confusing.

-I just want to stop here and say how amazing you are at writing!! I haven't found anything at all that
you could do better on! This is amazing. Great job!! Sorry!!!!

-You discussed this before, maybe take this out?

➔ I never previously mentioned the specific portion he is referring to, and I feel mentioning that
Lyft doesn’t offer paid maternity leave helps support Tolentino’s use of logos.

-Again there is a lot of restating this.

➔ Although I can understand why he said this, I had not yet discussed that part of the article
and how it specifically relates to pathos. I took the time to quickly restate in order to help the
flow, and to ensure the readers know what I am discussing and why.

-whatttt!?! No way someone admitted that! That is terrible

-With his argument structure as well as how you have put this. It had persuaded me more than ever.
The way you were able to put this is amazing.

Oliver Anderson’s paragraph with feedback:

I'm just gonna be flat out honest. This was amazing!! Very smart and dedicated you are!
Honestly I don’t think you have a weakness, all strengths. The only thing I found was that it
repeated a few times. The introduction is amazing, every part was so easy to follow. I read this
2 times from the very top and even read a few things over in the middle! Didn’t bore me or
anything once I was interested! It was mostly based on jobs not caring for their workers and
workers putting in effort and receiving very little as stated by not being able to buy a car and
having to work instead of going to the doctor which were both parts of your story. Your claims
were more than enough to persuade me and to understand what you were talking about and
what the author of the story you read was getting at. The Claims were amazing! You clearly
state where logo ethos and pathos are used and used great examples from the text to do so.
Like I said the essay flowed great from top to bottom with no errors I found. I can tell you took
tons of time writing this and read the article thoroughly. You knew what you were talking about.
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The only thing I may have done differently and honestly wish this was my essay because it is
absolutely phenomenal! Anyways I would fix the repeats and that is it. I wish I could help you
more but this was nothing short of AMAZINGGGG!!!

Tazia Mcaffee’s annotations:

-"The New Yorker",

-I like how you provided a description of the app!

-What does online mean in this situation? Maybe change up the wording to make it a little more
clear! :)

-The first part of the sentence is in present tense, and the second part is in past tense. I would
suggest switching the second half to have it be a better fit. For example, "when she decided to go
driving for a few hours and pick up a couple of riders."

-How bad is the pay and benefits? It would be more effective to see numbers, rather than just taking
the authors word for it.

➔ Because I do use numbers/stats that elaborate on the pay/benefits of Lyft employees in a

-I really like this statement, it poses a good question for the reader to think about.

-This is a very good thesis, but I don't see ethos mentioned.

➔ Because the lack of an ethos paragraph was a major concern in this peer revision, I did add a
small one under my pathos paragraph. However, from what I can see from the rubric, outline,
and example rhetorical analysis essays, it is not a requirement to discuss how the article
incorporates all 3 - ethos, logos, and pathos. Therefore, I did not include the use of ethos in
my thesis because it is such a minor strategy used in the article. In my thesis, however, I did
include a separate strategy used by the author - stating the counterargument/rebuking, as
well as the use of repetition.

-I like this sentence explaining what the paragraph means.

-Looking down through your essay, I don't see an ethos paragraph anywhere. Considering that the
Rhetorical Analysis is based on the use of ethos, logos, and pathos, I believe we are required to have
a paragraph for each.

-Did you mean to put embedded links into this text? If so, the first link doesn't work. If not, you can
just highlight it and remove the link :)
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-What exactly are these five dollar tasks? It is like running an errand or watching an ad or what?
Maybe give some examples of some of these tasks, so we can get a better understanding of what
the company is.

-This closing sentence is very powerful and I really like it, it shows the clear focus statement and
how they used logos to support that statement.

-Instead of saying "financial care", you might want to say "lack of financial care", to make the
argument more clear.

-I really like this quote you added in here, I had never thought of it this way.

-I like the strong language here.

-I saw pathos and logos, but I did not see ethos, so this conclusion statement is confusing when you
mention the use of ethos in it.

-”Her use of logos outlined how little gig workers are truly compensated, her use of pathos painted a
vivid picture of the financial, physical, and mental struggles these workers must endure. In addition
to that, as Talentino continually restated her main idea, the reader never lost the article’s focus.” You
don't have to use those specific words, but just try to shorten the sentence so there aren't 5 commas
in one sentence.

Tazia Mcaffee’s paragraph with feedback:

Overall, the essay was very well written and well structured. I really enjoyed reading it
and I got a good understanding of what the article was about. There is one main thing I’d focus
on, including an ethos paragraph. Your logos and pathos paragraphs were really good, but you
could either replace the paragraph in between your thesis statement and logos, or you could just
add an ethos paragraph. I think this is the thing that would improve your essay overall. Just to
give some background, ethos is to show credibility and why you are an expert on the topic. If the
person isn’t an expert, you can also explain that they are credible because they are citing credible
sources. The second one would probably be the case of this article. You could talk about how she
is credible because she is taking quotes directly from things these big companies have said.