Paper short abstract:

Crowdworkers performing so-called macro-tasks have to put in additional unpaid work to manage their online identities. To come across as competent and trustworthy, they have to anticipate clients' wishes, interact with the infrastructure of the work platform, and adhere to certain cultural codes.

Paper long abstract:

Crowdwork is often associated with so-called micro-tasks mediated by platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk. In my presentation, I shift the perspective to graphic designers using crowdwork platforms to gain access to more complex and specialized work. While micro-tasks are often characterized by a high degree of anonymity and interchangeability of workers, my research partners have to prove they are the best candidate in a global crowd of good ones.

I argue that these workers have to put in additional labour evoking trust and establishing an emotional connection with their clients. While this was the case especially for freelance workers before, digital platforms introduce new dimensions: in addition to anticipating what clients like, crowdworkers have to interact with the infrastructure of the digital platform. They need to make sure clients find their profile and work with the affordances and constraints of the interface the platform offers them to strategically create and manage their profiles.

Moreover, in a globalised labour market dominated by the Global North, negotiating professional identities gains a cultural dimension, especially for crowdworkers from the Global South. Crowdworkers' nationalities influence their chances of being hired even for very simple tasks, as studies have shown. I argue, however, that this effect is even stronger with macro tasks. To come across as competent and trustworthy, crowdworkers have to adapt to cultural codes that feel familiar to their clients.

Empirically, I draw on my autoethnographic analysis of several crowdwork platforms as well as interviews and participant observations with Indian crowdworkers.