Abstract
Research shows that people who face stigmatized work identities attempt to reconfigure their employment more positively, such as by concealing their involvement with their jobs or reframing the value of it. Yet, in an era of rising nonstandard work, how might managing work identities also involve managing multiple jobs across fluid employment contexts? We draw insights from two cases of nonstandard workers facing differing degrees of contested work identity—frontline restaurant workers and sex workers. We find that these workers use similar strategies to manage their employment that involve identity work and job searching, yet their decision to stick to their line of work or opt for alternatives stems in part from the symbolic characteristics of their respective jobs. We conclude by laying out a broader framework for how workers manage contested work identities in an era of nonstandard employment.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 219-239 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Qualitative Sociology |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2022 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank Gary Alan Fine, Neil Gong, Andrew Deener, and several anonymous reviewers for their comments on prior versions of this paper. All remaining errors are our own.
Keywords
- Nonstandard work
- Restaurant work
- Sex work
- Stigma
- Work identity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science