Factors Influencing the Ability to Achieve Valued Outcomes among Older Long-Term Unemployed People

Nienke Velterop,Sandra Brouwer,Hilbrand Oldenhuis,Louis Polstra,Jac Van Der Klink

doi:10.17645/si.v8i1.2114

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to explore the valuable functionings—things that people consider to be important—of the older long-term unemployed and their ability to achieve valued outcomes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 long-term unemployed people aged 45 and over. Participants were included through purposeful sampling. The theoretical frameworks of the latent deprivation theory and the capability approach were used to develop an interpretive analysis. Nine valuable functionings were identified: social contact, feeling appreciated, structure, feeling useful, meaningfulness, autonomy, financial resources, paid work, and being active. These valuable functionings were partly accessible through the activities that people performed, varying from physically active and physically passive activities to informal work. The functionings of meaningfulness, autonomy, financial resources, and paid work seemed to be difficult to achieve. We identified three groups. The first consisted of people whose work status changed when they entered the benefit system; for them paid work was still a valuable functioning, and they experienced the most difficulties in achieving valued outcomes. The second group also experienced a change in work status once they started to receive benefits, but those people adapted to their new situation by attributing greater value to other functionings. The third group had no change in work status, e.g., housewives who had applied for a benefit because they were not able to make ends meet after a divorce. This group did not experience a loss of functionings due to unemployment, nor did they try to achieve other functionings. The results of this study indicate a need for a more personalized, tailor-made approach, with an emphasis on an individual’s valued outcomes instead of on rules and obligations.

Highlights

Work is not always gratifying and can even have negative consequences. Graeber (2018, p. 11) stated that many workers hold bullshit jobs, “a form of paid employment” he says “that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.” According to him, such jobs largely occur in the private sector, in the fields of finance, law, human resources, public relations, and consultancy
The activities and situations that were considered important to the interviewees were social contacts, feeling appreciated, having structure, feeling useful, being active, meaningfulness, autonomy, financial resources, and paid work
We identified nine functionings which were noted as important across the interviews: social contact, feeling appreciated, structure, feeling useful, meaningfulness, autonomy, financial resources, paid work, and being active

Summary

Introduction

Work is not always gratifying and can even have negative consequences. Graeber (2018, p. 11) stated that many workers hold bullshit jobs, “a form of paid employment” he says “that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.” According to him, such jobs largely occur in the private sector, in the fields of finance, law, human resources, public relations, and consultancy. The unemployed have less access to the so-called latent benefits of work than those who are employed (Feather & Bond, 1983; Paul & Batinic, 2010; Selenko, Batinic, & Paul, 2011; Stiglbauer & Batinic, 2012). The deprivation of these latent benefits leads to lower levels of mental health (Jahoda, 1982). The impacts of unemployment on the latent benefits differ according to the family member with men, women, and children in the household being affected differently (Fryer & Fagan, 2003)

Methods

Results

Conclusion