"Giving Dignity to Suffering": 'Dirty Work' and Emotion Management among Frontline Caseworkers

Abstract

Grounded theory research was conducted with twenty-four male and female emergency shelter operators (alternatively known as caseworkers) from three different shelters in a large Canadian city: The Open Arms, Good Samaritan and Rescue Mission. Drawing on the experiences of those working in non-profit ‘homeless’ shelters, and based on the sociological concept of ‘dirty work,’ this study describes why caseworkers take on this kind of work, how they make sense of it, and what they themselves get out of it. This research reveals a complex picture of frontline emergency casework that others see as objectionable, dangerous and tainted is described by informants with a sense of job satisfaction, dignity, collective esteem and pride. Moreover, it illuminates the ways in which individuals and occupational groups reframe and subjectively construct meanings about what it means to be involved in ‘dirty work’ such that it is regarded positively and as ‘good work’. Because caseworkers deal in difficult emotions, they must learn to perform a balancing act between professional decorum and expressed concern. The ways that caseworkers are supposed to perceive their roles are governed by a set of unwritten norms and rules that normalize and renarrate disruptive and abnormal situations of a caseworker being humiliated, berated, verbally and physically attacked and by which they accept this as normal and therefore morally acceptable. It was typical for frontline caseworkers, working in non-profit shelters, to emphasize the relational and affectual rewards of the job as a compensation for its low pay and dirty ‘particulars,’ which meets the expectations, self-conceptions and values they hold themselves to be as caring and compassionate workers. They accomplish this by redirecting attention to the more dignifying aspects of their jobs and by identifying strongly with both their occupations and the collective identity of their occupational culture. This research further underscores both the importance of understanding the interpretive processes of meaning-making and the social construction of ‘dirt’.