Work and Occupations

Winton, Abbie; Umney, Charles; Alberti, Gabriella

doi: 10.1177/07308884251385467pmid: N/A

The debate on technology and the future of work has so far engaged little with the local state. This is surprising, since the local state's role as a potentially progressive actor in employment relations systems is attracting renewed interest in sociological scholarship. Through a study of warehousing in northern England, we examine how local state actors can mediate the relationship between technological change and work. We show that they often questioned the policy orthodoxy that private employer-led technological innovation always benefits local working populations, and we develop a typology of three strategies through which they sought to engage with technological trajectories in warehousing workplaces: engagement and advocacy, activation, and conditionality. Our study also shows how their regulatory capacity was limited by the opacity of technological innovation in warehousing, confining them to “soft” strategies which enshrined employer discretion and market imperatives. It concludes by reflecting on alternative visions whereby the local state may become more empowered to shape the future of work.

Narisada, Atsushi; Schieman, Scott

doi: 10.1177/07308884251381781pmid: N/A

Voice--the opportunity to express one's views in the decision-making process--is a central feature of organizational procedures. This study investigates the mental health consequences of the lack of voice at work, or voicelessness, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by heightened organizational change and uncertainty. Prior research on procedural justice and mental health has paid limited attention to the specific effect of voice, and few studies have used longitudinal designs that control for unobserved time-stable confounders. Moreover, the mechanisms that link procedural justice to mental health remain underexplored. We address these gaps by assessing the effect of voicelessness on psychological distress and anger using five waves of national longitudinal data of Canadian workers (March 2020 to April 2021) and fixed effects models. We further test whether the sense of mastery and subjective social status (SSS) mediate these relationships. Results show that voicelessness is associated with greater psychological distress and anger, net of time-stable confounders. Mastery functions as a mediator for both outcomes, whereas SSS does not. These findings underscore the importance of organizational efforts to enhance employee voice and identify perceived control as a key mechanism linking voicelessness to mental health.

Fuller, Sylvia; Cai, Manlin; Petts, Richard; Doucet, Andrea; Kurowska, Anna; Lero, Donna; Reimer, Thordis

doi: 10.1177/07308884251390866pmid: N/A

Unpredictable work schedules dictated by employers can be difficult to reconcile with parental obligations. As such, they may motivate different strategies for managing and dividing domestic labor among partnered parents. Drawing on pooled cross-national survey data of dual-earner heterosexual parents of young children in Canada, Germany, Poland, Italy, Sweden, and the United States, we investigate the relationship between the predictability of parental work schedules and divisions of housework and childcare. Analyses reveal stronger adaptations in childcare than housework, with results suggesting that when parental availability is uncertain, families tend to rely more often on the partner with a regular schedule to manage and meet children's needs. When both parents have unpredictable schedules, fathers also take on a greater share of childcare. The implications of fathers’ unpredictable schedules thus differ depending on whether the mother also works an unpredictable schedule, highlighting the importance of analyzing parents’ schedules together. Household economic security and gender egalitarian attitudes around fathers’ caregiving also condition the relationship between unpredictable schedules and divisions of domestic labor. Overall, findings highlight the need to expand understanding of time availability in research on domestic labor beyond total work hours to wider and more relational temporal dimensions.

Vieira, Tiago; Junte, Sander

doi: 10.1177/07308884251398078pmid: N/A

This article examines the impact of algorithmic management on workplace social relations in conventional employment settings. Fifty-one semi-structured interviews with middle managers and shop-floor workers of three different dark stores in Spain were conducted to explore how algorithmic tools reshape managerial roles and worker dynamics. Building on Labor Process Theory, the findings reveal that while algorithmic management reduces the need for traditional managerial oversight, it simultaneously transforms managers into algorithmic brokers who interpret algorithmic output, thus facilitating control mechanisms rather than eliminating them. This shift underlines the persistence of power asymmetries in capitalist employment relationships, where managers continue to play a critical role in extracting surplus value from labor. Furthermore, the article argues that technology deployment in the workplace both shapes and is shaped by power relations. This highlights the need for a nuanced understanding of how algorithmic management influences social workplace relations. As empirically illustrated, different forms of handling the human-machine complementarities emerging from the deployment of algorithmic management lead to varied outcomes. Where technology is used to surveil and coerce, workers develop grievances against management and employers. Conversely, where technology is at the service of thoughtfully crafted forms of normative control, workers immerse themselves in the labor process. Ultimately, this research contributes to ongoing debates about the future of work, arguing that concerns about full automation are exaggerated, and that algorithmic management should be seen instead as an avenue for the expansion and sophistication of workers’ exploitation through enhanced control mechanisms.

Williams, Christine

doi: 10.1177/07308884251394986pmid: N/A

While sociologists agree that precarious jobs are “bad jobs,” this is not necessarily the view of workers in these positions. The four books under review represent a fresh approach to the study of precarious work (labelled “Precarity 2.0”). These authors eschew the conventional wisdom that standard jobs are always superior to gig work. They find that some precarious workers find meaning and purpose in their “bad jobs,” and some even manage to thrive, especially those who have access to public or private safety nets. The books address a wide range of precarious work, including housework, ballet dancing, residential care work, computer consulting, professional organizing, and art vending. Together they make the case that workers do not need steady jobs; they need steady incomes. Where this money should come from—government, family, or personal savings—portends the future of social inequality in the gig economy.

Mears, Ashley; Birced, Elif; Nguyen, Thao

doi: 10.1177/07308884251374687pmid: N/A

On platforms, workplace rules can be ambiguous and inconsistently enforced. This article examines the labor process within the “grey zone” of platform governance, bridging theories of organizational misbehavior to research on digital labor. We compare two groups of content creators—porn creators and viral entertainers—who earn a living by sharing pictures and videos on social media. Both strategically utilize sexual imagery to boost their visibility and income. While platforms restrict explicit content, workers perceive blurred lines between what is allowed and what is not, and they look for ways to push those boundaries. Based on 94 interviews and ethnographic research, we identify a three-step process of strategic risk-taking. Creators edge against the rules, floodgate successful strategies, and recuperate after receiving sanctions. Ultimately, the “grey zone” allows workers to test and break rules, which ultimately benefits the platform by keeping both users and creators engaged. By conceptualizing platforms as grey zones, we connect the digital labor process to value production in the platform economy. Grey zones perpetuate the growth and interests of capital by keeping both users and creators engaged on the platforms.