O trabalho nas plataformas digitais: um Relato de Experiência como motociclista por aplicativo

Abstract

This study aims to characterize the main aspects of platform labor, or uberization, through an experiential account as a motorcycle ride-hailing worker in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil, while critically reflecting on the perceptions arising from this experience. The phenomenon of uberization reorganizes labor relations under the promise of autonomy, but it produces informality, on-demand work, subordinated self-management, and algorithmic control, with impacts on workers’ subjectivity and mental health. This is a qualitative and descriptive study grounded in the methodology of experiential narrative, articulated with psychoanalysis at the intersection of the social and the political. The material was produced from field notes, written annotations, and audio records gathered throughout the experience, and analyzed in dialogue with the literature on uberization, subjectivity, and perverse domination. The findings reveal long working hours, the transfer of costs and risks to the worker, pressure to meet targets, and invisible punishments imposed by the platform. As a consequence of this scenario, fatigue, tension, feelings of helplessness, and defensive strategies emerged as ways of enduring precariousness, showing that the appearance of autonomy conceals asymmetrical power relations sustained by a perverse arrangement. Uberized labor culminates in algorithmic management, which deepens precarization and its effects on the body, time, and speech.