Narrative interviews
Routine, work, family, goals and difficulties.
iFood · Exploratory research
Freedom needs a safety net.
What makes independent delivery work viable, dignified and sustainable for experienced workers.
15experienced workers
4complementary techniques
Brazilmultiple regions
The problem
Performance data did not explain the human experience behind it.
Online time, earnings and work mode described activity. They did not reveal whether the routine was a choice or a necessity, what it cost, or whether the person had alternatives. Two workers with the same numbers could be living opposite realities.
Research design
WhatsApp probes
Decisions and episodes captured as they happened.
Evocation and exercises
Emotional associations and the relative weight of motivations and values in the group.
Central insight
Autonomy without predictability becomes exposure.
Schedule freedom was real and valued. The problem emerged when people could choose when to work but could not predict whether the work would be sufficient, understand system decisions or contest them.
Synthesis
Freedom was necessary, and insufficient.
Demand, income and decisions needed to be understandable enough to support planning.
Accidents, blocks and failures required clear support and appeal paths.
Being treated fairly appeared as a concrete part of dignity at work.
Trust broke when real opportunity coexisted with decisions no one could explain.
Contribution and limit
The research changed the framing, not the product.
The study offered Logistics a different lens: autonomy as a set of conditions, not simply flexibility and performance. A reorganization dissolved the squad before implementation, so I do not attribute a product change or metric to this work. The limitation is part of the case.