Who Cares? Home-Based and Community-Based Care Workers’ Development of Positive Occupational Identity

• In Event: Organizational Communication Research Escalator - Extended Session

Abstract

Given the rate at which Western populations are graying, the accessibility of quality taxpayer-funded elder care is a prominent public policy concern, yet decisions about provision and financing of care often take for granted the existence of a large paid care workforce. The turnover statistics of the paid care workforce are a cause for alarm. Structural factors such as low wages contribute to poor retention rates, but the impact that personal care work’s poor occupational image has received little attention. This paper analyzes the ways in which Spanish and U.S. careworkers constructed a positive occupational identity through conversations with significant relational others. The findings showed significant variations in the value attributed to material and socio-emotional tasks and indicated the importance of peers in reframing. The paper considers the implications for how home-based careworkers, a remote workforce who must construct occupational identity in the absence of coworkers, maintain positive work identities.

Author

• Kirstie Lynd McAllum, Universite de Montreal