I never told this to anybody but in case people are wondering why someone works at home doing gig work online for not great money, maybe this will explain it.
I was a corporate librarian and the work just sort of dried up, then the Great Recession hit. So, I'm temping but a job came up. I applied to one of their other offices some months before so I got some attention when I applied again. Turns out, it was a government subcontractor doing EPA document work. Surprisingly I got the job but was discouraged to find out they were about to reapply for their contract and a competitor had one more MLS librarian than they had. Their old MLS staffer just left. So, I was just there to fill a spot so they could apply and get their contract renewed. I know this because my boss explained it while she stood behind me. Mind you, she wasn't talking to me. She was explaining this to somebody else while I'm sitting there.
So, of course, once they got their contract, they were really giving me the business, like expecting me to quit. She'd be real nice at the end of the day, if I wanted to talk to her about anything, I could, like making it easy to quit. But every day was another day's pay. I couldn't give it up.
I'd be given training on the 20 or so duties but the information was rattled off so fast I could barely write it down and then they'd complain I was compiling a manual of my duties. I was new. I had to have my notes. (I went through their computer files and portions of other manuals were sprinkled throughout. They'd been doing this to other people.)
The whole joint could have been done away with. They had a ridiculous routine of busywork to make it look like their department was doing necessary work and 90% of it was on me while the other staff just sat around. I was also told to fake statistics that also made them look busy. Whenever I'd ask about what we were doing and why, the boss lady'd get REALLY angry.
I wasn't retained after my probation period because they said I was being disrespectful to a coworker. I wasn't, but I did have questions and they did not like my questions. Well, I was glad to go back to gig working online at home, believe me.