I've been working on interviews with workers to provide another perspective on job seeker resistance and some more understanding of what it is like to work in employment services.
The three stories I am publishing on this blog provide a perspective on how employment services have changed since the transition from Job Network to Job Services Australia, a story which makes for depressing reading.
Read Jo, Sarah and Barbara's stories.
I am enjoying undertaking more Bourduesian style analysis on the way inter-subjective mediation influences welfare exchange outcomes and have added my reflections on the worker's experience here. The significance of this is that it adds depth to our understanding of what occurs in service encounters and what other factors are influencing the outcomes besides policy makers' intents!
Unfortunately, the analysis to date indicates that (mis)recognition is such as significant problem with employment services design, both in the way system rules have been designed not to accommodate the diverse needs and interests of job seekers, and in the harsh and punitive compliance that employment service workers are compelled to enforce which are detrimental to achieving engagement with the people who are most in need of assistance. Read the analysis here.
I am nearing the completion of data collection (i.e interviews) so if you have views you would like represented here please get in touch with me s9502268@student.rmit.edu.au.
