Millions of employees are now classified as gig workers – a subset of contingent employees with alternative employment arrangements. This type of work arrangement can be beneficial for both managers (e.g. cost savings, specialised skillsets) and employees (e.g. work preferences such as flexibility). Yet little research has addressed how trust for a manager might factor into gig workers’ performance when compared to traditional employees, perhaps because research has implied that trust is irrelevant to gig workers. We test this prediction across four studies to show that low trust is a double-edged sword with unfavourable and favourable outcomes. On the one hand, we find that less trust in the manager leads to lower performance and commitment among gig workers. Yet, on the other, we find that lower levels of trust help to offset or mitigate the harmful outcomes of trust violations, or unexpected, negative workplace events. Our findings highlight the important role of trust in this context of gig versus traditional workers.

现在，数以百万计的员工被归类为零工——具有替代就业安排的临时员工的子集。这种类型的工作安排对管理者（例如节省成本、专业技能）和员工（例如灵活性等工作偏好）都有好处。然而，很少有研究探讨与传统员工相比，对经理的信任如何影响零工工人的绩效，这或许是因为研究表明信任与零工工人无关。我们通过四项研究测试了这一预测，结果表明低信任度是一把双刃剑，会带来不利和有利的结果。一方面，我们发现对经理的信任度降低会导致零工员工的绩效和承诺降低。然而，另一方面，我们发现，较低水平的信任有助于抵消或减轻信任违规或意外的负面工作场所事件的有害后果。我们的研究结果强调了信任在零工与传统工人的背景下的重要作用。