“If Your Career Was a Week, Unemployment Would Be the Weekend”: Structural Influences on the Meanings of Work and Unemployment
Roč.22,č.2(2025)
The Future of Work
Social structure helps shape the perceived rewards from work and the challenges that come from losing a job. This study uses in-depth interviews with 36 employed and unemployed non-manual workers living in and around Prague to ascertain the subjective meanings of work and unemployment, and the factors that participants believe helped shape those meanings. Participants identified the meanings of work as: making money; using skills; connecting with colleagues; and serving the community. In striking contrast to previous literature on United States (US) non-manual workers, participants generally did not strongly connect work to their identities and thus did not suffer from identity threats during unemployment. Finally, participants often contrasted the Czech economic system and policies with those of the US to explain their own beliefs about differences in the meanings of work in the two countries, especially those meanings involving identity. The results can be used to craft policies that are best suited to achieve desired community outcomes – most notably a mentally healthy workforce with a good work-life balance – during workforce and economic transitions.
identity; unemployment; culture; economic structure; Czech Republic
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