The Problem with ‘Uber for Therapy’

aristarchus writes:

Revealing article in The Atlantic on the, um, shortcomings of the app-fueled gig economy.

A company that offers app-based coaching laid off its mental-health coaches, then offered them their jobs back without health insurance.

At 10 o'clock one morning this November, Rob Beal's bosses summoned him and his co-workers onto a mysterious Zoom call. Beal had spent more than two years working as a coach for AbleTo, which provides mental-health services to people through apps, videochats, and calls, like Uber for anxiety.

Beal, a 50-year-old former attorney, had devoted himself to his job coaching people through AbleTo's anxiety and depression programs. Though he made $55,000 a year-not a cushy salary by San Francisco standards-he loved that he was helping people. About 10 times a day, for 30 minutes at a time, he would call one of AbleTo's users and offer support or sometimes just a friendly ear. It wasn't therapy, but it was close. "It's exhilarating for me," Beal says. "I invest a lot emotionally in my clients. I care about them."

But now Beal's feel-good job was coming to an abrupt end. The manager on the call said Beal and his six fellow coaches were being terminated. Their role no longer fit the company's business model. They wouldn't be calling to check in on their clients that day.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.