Gig work in Texas’ record heat wave: ‘there was no shade anywhere’

Life in the Gig Economy tells the stories of workers in an industry millions of people rely upon. If you’d like to share your story, email staff writer Jessica Bursztynsky at Jessicabursz@proton.me.

Terry N. is a 62-year-old handyman who has been finding work through TaskRabbit for nine years. He’s spent the past four years working in Kyle, Texas. This is what the experience of working in a record heat wave has been like, in Terry’s own words.

I do interior painting and then I do mounting tasks. I don’t do anything with electrical or plumbing, because you have to be licensed for all that stuff and be educated on that. But I can do the rest of the stuff and then I also do furniture assembly. I’ve done outdoor play jungle gyms sets and stuff for kids, which is quite a bit of work.

As much as I keep trying to say, I’m not going to [work outside], I have clients that become regulars. And it’s like, “Oh, I want to do this,” so how do I say no? So anybody new that comes through? I’m always like “No, I don’t do outside work,” but then look at me, I’m doing outside work.

I have some health things that the heat is not good for. With the medications sometimes they put you on, you should avoid direct sunlight because your skin is sensitive and you can burn easily. It causes my body heat to rise anyway, sometimes inside the house; when I’m outside the house it’s doubly worse.

I’ve got one client who has a sprinter van. And he wanted to customize it and put panels on the inside. I said “I can be there by noon,” but [his house is] in a new subdivision, and they took down the trees, so there was no shade anywhere. I got there and I was in the van maybe 30 minutes and I came out and I said, “Sunrise tomorrow is at 6:35, I will be here at 6:35.” I did it for three days in a row to avoid that heat.

(August 21, 2023) I was at a client’s house and she had these two trellises for rose bushes that were gonna go underneath and I had to hang them on the side of her house. And it was right in the early morning, about 11 o’clock, but there was no shade and I was right in the sun. I was like “Oh my god, when is the sun going across the house?” She’s like about three o’clock. So I had to climb up on the ladder in the hot sun.

I work every day, as long as the work is coming in. I can schedule when I want and I work a lot. I don’t turn it down. My dad was always like, “Feast or famine, don’t complain when it’s really busy and you just want to stay home and lay around all day.” Because the time is going to come when all you have to do is lay around all day, and you’re going to be wishing you had to work.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.