SINGAPORE - For this Gig Economy series, I have performed queue control at a K-pop concert and at a Phoon Huat baking supplies store during the pandemic baking frenzy. I have discovered that when you are the wall between people and the thing they desire, they take a dislike to you.

At the Phoon Huat job, for instance, a disgruntled customer stood next to me and slowly and methodically picked at everything wrong with the queue system, the store and me. His ability to grind me down showed experience in torture, or parenting.