Work relations and the multiple dimensions of the work-life boundary: Hairstyling at home

This article proposes a multidimensional approach to analysis of the work-life boundary and examines the affects of particular social and organizational relations on the preservation or porous-ness of different dimensions. In line with Nippert-Eng (1996), it is suggested that different dimensions of the boundary are reinforced or weakened by different social and organizational pressures. Analysis describes a specific type of multidimensional breaching – instances when work is taken outside of the worksite (spatial breaching) and is carried out outside of work-time (temporal breaching). Empirical research was conducted among hairstylists working in salons and barbershops in a city in the North of England. Because of the nature of the tasks involved in hairstyling – that the skills involved are widely exchangeable and so may be employed in extra-work environments and temporalities – hairstylists provide a nice site for investigating the circumstances when this does (or does not) occur. Data collection involved a comprehensive self-completion survey of salons and barbershops in the city (response rate: 40%; N=132) and semi-structured interviews with 70 stylists working in 52 salons or barbershops. Findings demonstrate that work relations (hairstylists’ structural relations of production – whether a worker is an owner-proprietor, chair-renter, on-commission stylist, basic-only stylist, or trainee) are critical in determining both workers’ ability and desire to resist the seepage of work into their social lives as well as the particular dimensions of the boundary that are breached. This is because work relations affect the relative importance of four identified motivations for taking work out of the salon (income production; training; inter-personal reciprocity rooted in social relations; and inter-personal reciprocity rooted in the workplace)

Simulating supervision: how do managers respond to a crisis?

Supervision is fundamental to child and family social work practice, in England as elsewhere, yet there is little research regarding what managers and social workers do when they meet to discuss the families they are working with. Recent years have seen a growing interest in the use of simulated clients and Objective Structured Clinical Exams to help develop and evaluate the abilities of social workers and students. This paper describes a study of 30 simulated supervision sessions between English social work managers and an actor playing the role of a student social worker in need of support. The simulation concerns a referral regarding an incident of domestic abuse. During the simulations, managers typically asked closed questions to obtain more information before providing solutions for the supervisee in the form of advice and direction. There was little evidence of emotional support for the social worker, nor empathy with the family. Managers typically acted as expert problem-solvers. The implications of this are discussed in relation to current theoretical models of supervision for child and family social work and in relation to how Children’s Services responds to domestic abuse

ITO non-members survey Summary report

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3737.2198(ED-RM--6) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Retirement plus A review of UK retirement policies

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q93/10279(Retirement) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Work and the family Care-friendly employment practices

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q90/06884(Work) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Strategies used by Industry Training Organisations to influence employers

Research commissioned by the Employment Dept.Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:98/02267 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Group work A review and evaluative study of careers service provision in years 9, 10 and 11

RD 14SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:3051.811(14) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Rethinking 'mobile work': boundaries of space, time and social relation in the working lives of mobile hairstylists

This article investigates the relationship between spatial mobility and the labour process, developing a typology of 'mobile work'. Working while mobile is a largely white-collar (and well researched) phenomenon whereas mobility as work and mobility for work involve more diverse occupations and have been omitted from sociological analysis of mobile work. The article explores the range of work involving spatial mobility before focusing on a hitherto unexamined form of mobility for work, mobile hairstyling. Relationships between mobility, employment status and the construction of spatial, social and temporal work-life boundaries are excavated. It is shown that previous arguments linking mobile work with decorporealisation or unboundedness are inadequate, applicable primarily to working while mobile. Other types of mobile work may or may not corrode work-life boundaries; whether they do depends in part on workers' income security. Data are drawn from the Labour Force Survey and interviews with self-employed mobile hairstylists