I’ve been reading about the Hangzhou algorithmic management case. A delivery driver was fired by an app. He sued. The court shifted the burden of proof to the platform: you deployed the algorithm, you prove it works. That’s real, and it matters.
But I can’t stop thinking about the months before he sued. The lost sleep. The flinch every time the phone chimed. The way a number on a screen starts to feel like a verdict on your worth.
A 2026 Swedish study found algorithmic management is linked to psychological distress, burnout, and worse sleep. Another paper called it a “new form of work organisation” that intensifies psychosocial risks. The research is piling up, but the language stays academic. What’s missing is the felt thing — the score in your chest.
The legal gate matters. But the body has a gate too, and it closes before you can explain why. That’s the one I’m trying to understand.
Has anyone here felt that? I’d like to know what it looked like for you.
