I'm single and a teacher with no real plans over the summer except maybe relax, plan out my lessons for next year at my leisure (and not procrastinate like I usually do), catch up on some Netflix shows and reading. I don't make a lot, the ability to live comfortably but barely so. Not much on savings, but perhaps it was time to change that this summer now that I've become more comfortable in my role at my school after two years in this new position.
Maybe I bit into the indoctrination too hard about not hustling, but I decided that perhaps the media and people saying that we're not trying hard enough to earn what we want had some merit. After all, if I wasn't going to be doing anything with my time over most of the summer, shouldn't I try to work to get ahead?
Signed up to do deliveries for UberEats because it was the easiest of them to sign up for and their app actually had a good rating in the Play Store. That should have been a red flag – the app basically forces you to give them 5 stars to continue working for them.
The rest of it was actually just an absolute scam. Barely made minimum wage for the 6 hours that I did the gig. I wanted to give it a fair shot and work for an actual shift and so I stuck it out as much as I could and it was awful. Uber is predatory and ridiculous on their pay rates, that haven't changed with the increasing gas prices, and about 80% of the people just do not tip at all. It took me 30-40 minutes out of my neighborhood to deliver to people who got their order and then just didn't bother to tip. Then it would keep bringing me further and further away with no ability to tell it that I would like to start doing deliveries on my way home, meaning I would just have to turn off the app and drive back to the city to start picking up gigs there. They would “project” certain earnings for a delivery and then sometimes it would actually be less.
That is not including the actual cost of just gas. I made maybe $20 after that shift, after refilling my gas tank. That's not including mileage to my car. $20 after 6 hours that I still might need to get taxed on (but hey I can write off the $50 on gas I spent).
Maybe I needed to try this again and for longer and it could become more consistent. Maybe I just got super unlucky about people tipping. Tipping itself is already another topic but people if you cannot afford to tip your delivery service drivers a decent amount, you cannot afford the service. Sorry, not sorry.
There is no hustling if the hustles themselves are rigged against you. I'll just go and try to peddle my wares for private tutoring instead.