Unemployment, wellbeing and the power of the work ethic: Implications for social policy

Abstract

Unemployment is associated with a range of health and social problems, such as poor physical health and wellbeing. Welfare state research has recently considered how social policies can ameliorate the harmful effects of unemployment. This article argues that such policy suggestions disregard the role of the work ethic in shaping the experience of unemployment. In societies that glorify employment as a signifier of identity and status, it is unsurprising that those without employment suffer. Previous research supports this view, showing how subscription to the work ethic is associated with wellbeing amongst unemployed people. Original analysis of the European Values Study confirms the importance of the work ethic, showing how unemployed people with weaker work ethics have significantly higher life satisfaction than those with stronger work ethics. The article concludes that the most effective way of dealing with the deleterious effects of unemployment is to challenge the centrality of employment in contemporary societies.

Work ethics and societal norms influence sick leave and return to work: tales of transformation

“…The evidence of the positive association between work, health and wellbeing has been gathering for decades, and suggests that being involved in paid work offers meaning to life in terms of social contribution, social recognition, self-fulfilment as well as fulfilling basic needs such as housing and food [1,2]. Sage [1] challenges this view by claiming that it is not the absence of work per se that causes the decline in wellbeing when a person is not working, but rather the loss of identity, respect and status associated with work in today's society. From this perspective, positive associations between wellbeing and work is explained by social status, contributions to society and the self-worth that work provides.…”

Well-being of unemployed people: relations with work values and time of unemployment

“…However, it is known that well-being is subject to the influence of several factors, such as marital status, age, financial resources, among others (Ferreira et al, 2015). Thus, according to Sage (2019), unemployment is one of the factors that also influences the diminishment of wellbeing, as well as self-esteem and physical and psychological health. Such deleterious effects of unemployment occur mainly due to the centrality and the role that work plays in people's lives.…”

Performances for upward mobility: How Dutch workfare programmes function as temporal spaces of imagination

“…Political discourses about work and workfare policies suggest that work is a 'happy object,' in the words of Sara Ahmed (2010, p. 28). At any rate in certain contexts, it is recognised as a source of happiness and wellbeing, for both individuals and societies as a whole (Sage, 2019;Tokumitsu, 2015;Weeks, 2017). On the website of the Dutch government one can read that 'a job offers people social contacts, self-confidence and the possibility for personal development'.…”

“…Welfare reforms in the Netherlands can be situated in terms of wider policy developments in Europe (and beyond) aimed at encouraging and compelling citizens to be 'active' in the labour market as well as in civil society, as this is believed to improve people's lives and society as a whole, while simultaneously reducing welfare expenditure (Clarke, 2005;Cruikshank, 1999;Muehlebach, 2011;Sage, 2019). These policy developments have been described and analysed in much detail (see, for example, Betzelt & Bothfeld, 2011;Brodkin & Marston, 2013;Newman & Tonkens, 2011).…”