“You Hurt Yourself a Little Every Day.”

Abstract

This article addresses the health of self-employed people, which statistical data indicates to be superior to that of wage-earners, all things being equal. This relative advantage is interpreted here as the result of a selection process related to the healthy worker effect. This hypothesis is successfully tested on the particular case of farriers, using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and data from a questionnaire survey of 356 farriers-in-training. Using a qualitative approach to give depth to the results of large surveys, the author identifies some social processes that amplify or attenuate the healthy worker effect. At each stage of the farriers' career, selection by health takes different forms relating to professional ethos, the distribution of strain, lifestyle, and the ability to change careers. The healthy worker effect is nevertheless forestalled by the existence of an informal working group.