How the Rise in Nonstandard Work Changes “Good Jobs” in Creative Industries

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 19: Creative and Entertainment Industries

Abstract

As an industry becomes dominated by nonstandard employment, does this shift also alter the remaining “good jobs” (Kalleburg, 2013) in standard employment? Using data from interviews with 52 NYC-based creative workers in industries that are in flux between standard and non-standard employment, I find that new creative workers in standard employment consent to a trade-off of industry exposure and training for bad working conditions. As creative workers gained more experience in their fields, workers became acutely aware of their precarious working conditions and longed for an imaginary of the SER they felt that they had nearly missed—one full of corporate perks, with stable pay and a manageable pace. Facing unrelenting schedules, some workers leveraged their SER experience to go freelance, using their status as nonstandard, independent workers to guard against burnout and slow their production schedules. Others were forced into nonstandard work due to layoffs, remaining underemployed and financially insecure as they neared retirement-age.

Author

• Erica Felice Mildner, University of British Columbia