En bekymmersam situation : En studie om tidsbegränsade anställningar ur ett genusperspektiv

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to investigate how temporary employment affects a work place and its employees and also, from a gender perspective, investigate how individuals relate to their insecure work situation. To achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative approach was used, and the study is based on interviews with eight employees at a department store for consumer electronics. In order to understand and analyze the employees’ stories Guy Standing’s theory about the precariat and Raewyn Connell and Yvonne Hirdmans’ gender-theories were applied. The results of the study have shown that the current working conditions generate a high degree of insecurity and lack of control amongst the employees when it comes to future employment, work hours and income, which also affect the employees’ current and future personal life. The insecurity at the work place does furthermore cause high competition, disloyalty and absence of empathy amongst the workers, which weakens and challenges the norms that regulate human behavior. By, for example, stealing each other’s customers, the employees take measures to secure their position in the work place. Regarding the gender perspective the results have shown that both individuals who identify themselves as male and female feel insecure due to the work situation, but there are different, gender specified, ways to handle the insecurity. The individuals that identify themselves as male tend to handle the situation by for example highlight themselves and their work performance in order to maintain the superior position in the gender system, while it is characterizing for the femininity to be excessively self-critical.