Lived Experiences Of Work Research Articles

Retaining doctors in emergency medicine: an ethnographic study of emergency departments in England

ObjectivesTo gain a deep understanding of factors driving retention in emergency medicine. To understand in detail the day-to-day lived experience of emergency medicine doctors, to identify and explore factors influencing...

Forgotten women in education: A narrative inquiry into the marginalisation of ECD practitioners

Background: South African narratives of and by early childhood development (ECD) practitioners often focus on policies, practices and perspectives in research. While these are important for the development of the field, the voices of ECD practitioners, in this marginalised space, are silent.Aim: This article aims to understand: Who are the ECD practitioners? What are the conditions of their lives and livelihoods? How do they negotiate opportunities for employment, socio-economic growth and further education and training?Setting: The study describes the marginality of ECD practitioners by narrating the lived experience of work and post-school education and training of one mature woman in the Western Cape. By narrating a single story, the stories of others unfold; working in similar circumstances and negotiating the same opportunities in the harsh reality of poverty and oppression. Employing a narrative methodology is a commitment to decolonising the practice of research, where voices of the ‘Other’ are centralised and amplified.Methods: An intersectional lens forms the theoretical grounding for this article with life history interviews as its primary form of data collection.Results: Adult women ECD practitioners are mainly poor, black and female. They pursue access into higher education to improve their lives and livelihoods.Conclusion: The intersections that shape their lives limit their opportunities for access and success.Contribution: The power of narrative research, displayed in this article, ensures that voice is used to move the lived experiences of black women ECD practitioners from the margins to the centre.

Hospital corridors as lived spaces: The reconfiguration of social boundaries during the early stages of the Covid pandemic.

This article explores the meanings and uses of a hospital corridor through 98 diary entries produced by the staff of an English specialist hospital during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on Lefebvre's (1991, The production of space. Blackwell) threefold theorisation of space, corridors are seen as conceived, perceived and lived spaces, produced through and enabling the reconfiguration and reinterpretation of social interactions. The diaries depict two distinct versions of the central hospital corridor: its 'normal' operation prior to the pandemic when it was perceived as a social and symbolic space for collective sensemaking and the 'COVID-19 empty corridor' described as a haunting place that divided hospital staff along ostensibly new social and moral boundaries that impacted negatively on lived work experiences and staff relationships. The mobilisation of the central hospital corridor in the daily social construction of meaning and experience during a period of organisational and societal crisis suggests that corridors should not be only seen as a material backdrop for work relationships but as social entities that come into being and are maintained and reproduced through the (lack of) performance of social relations.

The Multi-Genre Female Singer: Practitioner Insights

This article presents a selection of findings from a study that investigated the professional female singer’s performance of multiple genres of voice. The term multi-genre-singing (MGS) refers to singers who have experience in several genres that may or may not include classical. Presented are insights from a qualitative investigation via interviews with eighteen female practitioners of MGS regarding their background and practical methods, as well as approaches and techniques of vocal performance. The specific technical areas in relation to MGS discussed in this article are postural alignment, rhythm and movement, breath management, articulation and registration. Practitioner perspectives have been sought specifically to address the gap in the field of research of singing practice more commonly dominated by studies that investigate perspectives of pedagogues. While many of the interview participants are also teachers, a focus for the research was to elicit the lived experiences of working as a multi-genre singer. The findings reveal MGS practitioners often possess not only a comprehensive understanding of the definitions and qualities of individual genres but the interrelated parameters and complexities of approaches and attitudes involved in singing multiple genres.

The lived experiences of women workers in Africa's transport sector: Reflections from Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis

This paper draws on ethnographic research conducted 2019–2022 in three quite diverse city regions - Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis - to understand women's lived experiences of work in the road transport sector. The strength of connection between male identity and motor-mobility in Africa is ubiquitous and has rarely been questioned by transport sector actors. Women are still largely absent from the story, constrained at least partly by hegemonic norms of femininity and an ‘affective atmosphere’ that deters female entry. However, there are occasional cases across Africa where women have dared to disrupt this masculinist enterprise, either as employees or entrepreneurs. This study explores and compares women transport workers' everyday experiences, drawing principally on in-depth interviews with those in customer-facing roles (taxi and bus drivers, bus conductors). Relevant public sector organisations and major transport employers were also consulted, while focus groups with community groups of men and women explored their attitudes to women employed as transport workers, and with school-girls investigated their career aspirations and views regarding employment in the sector. A final section looks to the future, post-COVID-19. Although new opportunities occasionally emerge for women, they need much more support, not only in terms of skills training, but also through flexible working opportunities, union recognition and action, microfinance and financial management training. This support is essential in order to expand the visibility of women transport workers and thus make the wider transport milieu less overwhelmingly male and more welcoming to women transport users.

Pain, No Gain? A Joint-Autoethnography of Our Working Lives as Academics with Chronic Illnesses

This paper adopts a joint-autoethnographic approach to explore our lived experiences of working in academia whilst living with chronic illness, specifically Ankylosing Spondylitis, at two ‘new’ public universities in the North of England, UK. Use of the novel methodological approach of joint-autoethnography enables us to provide a snapshot into what it means to be ‘othered’ in contemporary neoliberal academia. We contribute to existing debates which seek to disrupt perceptions of academia as an elitist, ablest and privileged ivory tower. Through data captured in personal research diaries, we shed light on the emotional and embodied experiences of living with chronic illness whilst navigating academia, and how we perform our (un)spoiled academic identities. This is important because women with chronic illnesses and disabilities are significantly under-represented in senior roles within universities. This paper will interest an international readership because chronic illnesses are widespread in the workforce and these individuals offer a unique perspective within higher education, and have an awareness of the barriers faced by other academics and students with chronic illnesses.

Infection prevention and control across the continuum of COVID-19 care: A qualitative study of patients', caregivers' and providers' experiences.

IntroductionHealthcare facilities adopted restrictive visitor policies as a result of the COVID‐19 (COVID) pandemic. Though these measures were necessary to promote the safety of patients, families and healthcare providers, it led to isolation and loneliness amongst acute care inpatients that can undermine patient rehabilitation and recovery. The study objectives were to (1) explore how infection prevention and control (IP&C) measures impacted stakeholders' perceptions of care quality and interactions with others and (2) investigate how these experiences and perceptions varied across stakeholder groups and care settings.MethodsA qualitative descriptive study was conducted. Patients and their families from an inpatient COVID rehabilitation hospital and healthcare providers from an acute or rehabilitation COVID hospital were interviewed between August 2020 and February 2021.ResultsA total of 10 patients, 5 family members and 12 healthcare providers were interviewed. Four major themes were identified: (1) IP&C measures challenged the psychosocial health of all stakeholders across care settings; (2): IP&C measures precipitated a need for greater relational care from HCPs; (3) infection prevention tenets perpetuated COVID‐related stigma that stakeholders experienced across care settings; and (4) technology was used to facilitate human connection when IP&C limited physical presence.ConclusionIP&C measures challenged psychosocial health and maintenance of vital human connections. Loneliness and isolation were felt by all stakeholders due to physical distancing and COVID‐related stigma. Some isolation was mitigated by the relational care provided by HCPs and technological innovations used. The findings of the study underscore the need to balance safety with psychosocial well‐being across care settings and beyond the patient–provider dyad.Patient and Public ContributionThis study was informed by the Patient‐Oriented Research Agenda and developed through consultations with patients and family caregivers to identify priority areas for rehabilitation research. Priority areas identified that informed the current study were (1) the need to focus on the psychosocial aspects of recovery from illness and injury and (2) the importance of exploring patients' recovery experiences and needs across the continuum of care. The study protocol, ethics submission, analysis and manuscript preparation were all informed by healthcare providers with lived experience of working in COVID care settings.

‘Never think doing a job is easy’: The lived experience of work for people who have an intellectual and developmental disability

Introduction The proportion of people with an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD) in paid employment is low internationally despite policy efforts. Evidence suggests multiple and varied explanations for this, including organisational, social and personal barriers. That evidence has not focused on first-person experiences which may provide a depth of understanding and explanation of the work-related experiences of people with IDD. Method A hermeneutic phenomenological approach and an exploratory research method of a ‘creative collaborative partnership’ was adopted to illuminate the work-related experiences of six people with a mild IDD. Findings Six work stories composed of narratives and visual images were collaboratively created revealing a complex range of positive and negative experiences and perspectives of paid work. Five collective narrative frames emerged: the quest ‘to do’, navigating bureaucratic seas, finding a good fit, forging of identity and finding both friend and foe. Conclusion The collaborators’ stories highlighted that individuals supporting people with IDD towards or in work, including occupational therapists, need to adopt a nuanced systemic perspective of the context surrounding the person. This includes identifying allies and allowing people with IDD to decide how (if at all) they describe their IDD status to others as they establish their worker identity.

Work from Home Scheme: Faculty Efficiency of the Basic Education Department of the Selected Don Bosco Schools

This study focused on the lived experiences of Work from Home Salesian Educators. It aimed to determine the Faculty Efficiency of the Basic Education Department of the selected Don Bosco Schools working from home for the School Year 2021-2022. Distinctively, it sought to answer to the following questions: 1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of age, gender, educational attainment, and length of service? 2. What is the level of online instructional delivery in terms of delivery of the lesson, connection to students, assessment, and strategies? 3. What is the level of faculty efficiency in terms of classroom management, teaching competency, professional responsibility, and Salesianity? 4. Is there a significant relationship between the demographic profile of the respondents and their faculty efficiency? 5. Is there a significant relationship between online instructional delivery and faculty efficiency? The study employed a quantitative research method. The researcher obtained the raw data of the demographic profile in terms of age, gender, educational attainment, and length of service. The result revealed that most of the Salesian Educators in the selected Don Bosco Schools are female and young adults because it holds the more significant percentage. Due to the high percentage of the teachers who has bachelor's degree and the 50% of the respondents with teaching of five years and below, it is concluded that the majority of the respondents are pretty new in the Salesian Education System. Also, the level of online instructional delivery gathered an overall mean of 3.26 for delivery of the lesson, 3.27 for connection to students, 3.36 for assessment, and 3.21 for strategies interpreted as High, respectively. These results mean that teachers are preparing engaging activities and learning approaches. The learners feel that the system of don Bosco is transferred online; hence they can still feel how much their teachers extend effort and presence to deliver effective lessons for them. In the same manner, the level of faculty efficiency gathered an overall mean of 3.38 for classroom management and 3.23 for professional responsibility with a verbal interpretation of Efficient. In contrast, teaching competency gathered an overall mean of 3.40 teaching competency and 3.57 for Salesianity interpreted as Highly Efficient. These results mean that the teachers are still efficient in providing good classroom management, high-rate teaching competency, and efficient professional responsibility, and meaningful Salesianity. Lastly, the teacher's demographic profile, online instructional delivery, and teaching efficiency garnered a primarily significant analysis in their correlation, which revealed that despite being young or old, whether male or female, pursued professional growth or not, teachers can deliver learning effectively. New or experienced teachers can provide quality education for the learners while accomplishing their professional responsibilities under work from home scheme.

Personal care assistants' lived experience of working in the home setting with children and adults on mechanical ventilation.

Working as a personal care assistant (PCA) with children and adults on mechanical ventilation in a home setting may be complex and challenging due to the physical and mental working conditions. To explore the lived experience of working as a (PCA) with patients, children and adults on mechanical ventilation in the home setting. A qualitative study using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. Data collection involved semi-structured individual interviews with 20 PCAs (n=15 women and n=5men) in Denmark in 2020. Their work experience with patients on home mechanical ventilation ranged from 8months to 25years (median 8years).The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist was used as a guideline. Four main themes emerged from the structural analysis: Being a fly on the wall or part of the family, Always being in a state of readiness is exhausting, Being a team player and Mutual respect is key in the work relationship. PCAs had to balance on a knife's edge when working with children and adults on mechanical ventilation in the home setting and try to strike a happy medium. Enduring the job required a proper physical and mental work environment, and thorough preparation, achieved not only through technical training, but also through learning how to be part of a professional relationship characterised by mutual respect and matched expectations. The findings provide clinical practice with important insights into how to inform, prepare and educate PCAs working with patients on mechanical ventilation in the home setting. Further research into home care education and training programmes with a patient- and family-centred care approach is needed.

From Iran to Australia: Intercultural Encounters in Music

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the experiences of four performing artists, vocalist Tara Tiba, saz player and guitarist Reza Mirzaei, daf and ney player Esfandiar Shahmir and tar player Hamed Sadeghi, who have moved from Iran to Australia, where they now live and work. It traces their respective journeys of migration and career development in their new country. In particular, it explores their collaborations with Australian-born jazz musicians, and how this has affected their music. Through a series of informal interviews with these musicians, this article examines their lived experience of working as musicians in Australia, and how intercultural collaborations have impacted their creative output. It finds that nuanced intercultural approaches have been crucial to the success and the nature of the music they create.

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the meaning of work to women living with breast cancer

Work is an important aspect of everyday life. This remains true for those living with and beyond cancer. Less is known about how the meaning of work may change over the cancer journey, the needs of the individual in response to changes and how healthcare professionals and employing organisations can meet these needs. The aim of this study was to explore the lived experience of work after treatment for breast cancer in a group of professional working women within the UK. This article presents an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the experiences of 15 professional women diagnosed with breast cancer. We discuss these women's journey from (1) rethinking the meaning of work to (2) making decisions about work ability and advice on work to (3) transitioning back in to the workplace and the value of continued engagement with employer. The findings from this study demonstrate the complex interplay between living with cancer, treatment decisions and work. This study highlights two key areas for inclusion in practice: (1) support from Healthcare Professionals and judgements of functional ability and work ability and (2) the role of line managers in managing cancer and work.

When Words Do Not Matter: Identifying Actions to Effect Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Academy

It is time to move past the words—the well-crafted statements circulated by groups and organizations across the academy, the scholarly writing as displacement, the formal and informal critiques—as if they had some recognizable impact. Each of these rhetorical moves can be valuable in helping to effect larger cultural and structural shifts. Yet, alone, a variety of evidence suggests that these forms of communication fail at effecting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Therefore, through our varied areas of research and lived work experiences, we focus attention toward actions as sites of power and potential: (a) in faculty emotional labor and work (McLeod), (b) at various levels of university administration and structural change (Ashcraft and Allen), (c) in the time-based practices associated with the ways we teach and mentor graduate students (Ballard), and (d) in our corpus of scholarship (Ganesh and Zoller).

The lived experiences of work and health of people living with deaf-blindness due to Usher syndrome type 2

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aimed to explore lived experiences with working life from the perspective of people with deafblindness due to Usher syndrome type 2 (USH2). Background: A limited number of studies have explored working life of people with Usher syndrome. One study of individuals with USH2 showed that work active reported significantly better psychological health compared to non-working individuals. Methods: Seven participants aged 38–50 years with USH2 participated in interviews analysed by interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: The analyses yielded four themes showing that work is a source of satisfaction and a commitment that needs to be balanced. It is also associated with facing limitations and feelings of uncertainty. Conclusion: Based on the psychology of work model we have demonstrated that work is associated with social connectedness, self-determination and a source of improved health outcomes. There are however also potential health hazards in people with USH2, indicating a need for balance between individual needs and resources, and an adapted environment, for maintaining or regaining health for actively working people with USH2.

The work-life experiences of an invisible workforce

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the work-life (WL) experiences of live-in women migrant domestic workers (MDWs), who represent a significant proportion of migrant workers globally. MDWs play a key role in enabling the work-life balance (WLB) of others, namely the middle-class households that employ them. Yet, their experiences have largely been invisible in mainstream WL literature. The authors draw on an intersectional approach to frame the WL experiences of this marginalized group of women at the intersection of being secondary labour segment workers, with significant legal and employment restrictions as migrant workers, who work and live in the same place as their employers. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 women MDWs from Indonesia and the Philippines working in Malaysia. The women talked about the meaning of work as MDWs, how they maintain familial connections whilst working abroad, and how they negotiate their WLB as live-in workers. Thematic analysis of the interviews focused on the intersection of the women’s multiple dimensions of disadvantage, including gender, class and temporary migrant-foreigner status, in shaping their accounts of the WL interface. Findings Three thematic narratives highlight that any semblance of WLB in the MDWs’ lived experience has given way to the needs of their employers and to the imperative to earn an income for their families back home. The themes are: working as MDWs enables the women and their families back home to have a life; the co-existence of WL boundary segmentation and integration in relation to “real” and “temporary” families; and the notion of WLB being centred around the women’s ability to fulfil their multiple duties as MDWs and absent mothers/sisters/daughters. Research limitations/implications The study is based on a small sample of live-in women MDWs in Malaysia, intended to promote typically excluded voices and not to provide generalizable findings. Accessing potential participants was a considerable challenge, given the vulnerable positions of women MDWs and the invisible nature of their work. Practical implications Future research should adopt a multi-stakeholder approach to studying the WL experiences of women MDWs. In particular, links with non-governmental organizations who work directly with women MDWs should be established as a way of improving future participant access. Social implications The study underscores the existence of policies and regulations that tolerate and uphold social inequalities that benefit primary labour segment workers to the detriment of secondary labour segment workers, including women MDWs. Originality/value Extant WL literature is dominated by the experiences of “the ideal work-life balancers”, who tend to be white middle-class women, engaged in professional work. This study offers original contribution by giving voice to a taken-for-granted group of women migrant workers who make other people’s WLB possible. Moreover, the study challenges WL research by underscoring the power inequities that shape the participants’ marginal and disadvantaged lived experience of work, life, family and WLB.

A Discursive Sensemaking Perspective on Project-Based Work in Public Healthcare

This study investigates project participants’ sensemaking of lived work experiences during periods of organizational change within Finnish public healthcare. It introduces a discursive sensemaking perspective to investigate lived experiences, that is, reflexive practitioners’ situational thinking. Drawing upon 17 interviews, the study identifies diverse repertoires through which the lived experiences are considered meaningful. These are repertoires of: (1) transformation, (2) realism, (3) politics, (4) individuality, (5) reflexivity, and (6) senselessness. The results show that project-based work in public healthcare differs from project participants’ expectations because projects are perceived to increase rather than decrease bureaucracy and include unsustainable working conditions that have to be endured.

Mobile Work, Veterinary Subjectivity and Brexit: Veterinary Surgeons’ Migration to the UK

AbstractThis article extends studies of ‘global work’ by considering the mobility of veterinary surgeons in the global countryside. The article develops the concept of ‘disease ecology’: an assemblage of heterogenous actors and relations that inscribe and normalise mobility within professional subjectivities. Disruptions to these disease ecologies can contribute to new patterns of mobility. Drawing on biographical narrative interviews with 35 vets who have migrated to the United Kingdom to work, the article shows how veterinary mobility is shaped by and emerges in response to these disease ecologies. Specifically, the article describes how four narratives – ‘the first job’, ‘escape and adventure’, ‘the lucky break’ and ‘staying mobilities’ – contribute to veterinary migration to the UK, and how the lived experiences of work and inscriptions of mobile veterinary subjectivities within disease ecologies lead vets to stay in the UK. However, the article also considers the role of Brexit in disrupting established disease ecologies and creating new patterns of veterinary mobilities. In identifying how Brexit challenges vets’ sense of place, the article concludes by exploring Brexit's potential impact to the future of veterinary services in the UK.

‘We are All Entrepreneurs Now’: Options and New Approaches for Adapting Equality Law for the ‘Gig Economy’

As the world of work moves to increasingly precarious, temporary and insecure forms of labour, traditional forms of work regulation are becoming less relevant for the ‘gig economy’. Equality law has traditionally been framed as protecting ‘employees’ (and now ‘workers’) against acts of discrimination by ‘employers’. As these categories become increasingly remote from the lived experience of work, the relevance and potential of equality law to secure individual employment rights becomes increasingly limited. Drawing on comparative legal doctrinal analysis of the UK and Australia, this article considers options and new approaches for protecting workers from discrimination in new forms of employment, canvassing ideas such as the extension of equalitylaw to non-traditional workers, collectivized approaches to individual protection, and the use of positive duties to regulate the gig economy. This article questions the basic relevance and structuring of equality law for new forms of work. If equality law is to remain relevant and effective, serious changes are required to how it is conceived, framed and promoted. Merely extending existing ideas of ‘equality law’ to new forms of work will not respond to fundamental shifts in the labour market: there is a need to rethink and retheorize the role and purpose of equality law

Why do GPs leave direct patient care and what might help to retain them? A qualitative study of GPs in South West England

ObjectiveTo identify factors influencing general practitioners' (GPs’) decisions about whether or not to remain in direct patient care in general practice and what might help to retain them in that...

Attracting and retaining female chefs

Attracting and retaining female chefs