Express Drive Community Associate job title should be changed to "Lyft Express Drive Human Punching Bag Associate", due to the amount of emotional and mental abuse that a CA experiences during their underpaid, 8 hours shift in the field. After working in the Service industry for almost 18 years, I have never felt more physically threatened by customers/drivers than I did while working in this position. Express Drive is the last resort for the majority of its participants to obtain a vehicle. All is required is a drivers license, $250 deposit and a cleanish DMV/Criminal background check.
Lyft hides behind the guise that their drivers are "Contract Workers" and therefore the CAs in the field are unable to refuse service to any of them. Countless times I was screamed at, physically intimidated, disrespected and generally harassed by the drivers, with little or no support from my managers. Managers were hesitant to ban drivers from using the Lyft platform, even after the drivers had displayed mentally unstable or malicious behavior towards CAs.
If you are researching any CONTRACT positions working for the Lyft company, I strongly recommend applying elsewhere. Find a company that actually values their hardworking contract workers and have a plan/set time period for contract to hire. Lyft strings their contract workers along for an undetermined amount of time for full time hiring. Not uncommon for contract CAs to be in a contract position for over a year before becoming full time. The top pay for the position ($18/hr) is laughable for the SF Bay Area and 99% of the contract CAs also drive for Lyft, on top of putting in 40 hours of fielding a nonstop barrage of disrespectful drivers.
Lastly, there is a major disconnect between "Full-Time" Lyft employees and "Contract" workers. When in the main Operations Hub it could be interpreted that the Full-Time employees view the Contract folks as inferior or just "the hired help". Not a very welcoming environment. I would encourage the upper Lyft management to provide their Operations Managers and Leads with some serious sensitivity and empathy training.
Overall, don't work in a contract position for Express Drive unless you enjoy an underpaid, degrading, end-of-the-line type of position that will not only ruin your mental health, but your physical health as you consume alcohol or drugs to deal with the stress of it.
