Ravalier Jermaine, Morton Rheanna, Russell Lauren, Rei Fidalgo Antonio
CoLA, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK.
School of Society, Enterprise and Environment, Bath Spa University, Bath, UK.
Health Soc Care Community. 2019 Mar;27(2):348-355. doi: 10.1111/hsc.12652. Epub 2018 Sep 2.
The UK domiciliary care workers play a vital role in maintaining and improving the lives of service users who have a variety of needs. Around 60% of these employees work under zero-hours contracts but, while it is known that conditions such as temporary and shift working can influence employee health and performance, zero-hours have not been widely investigated. This project sought to first investigate the stress associated with working as a domiciliary care worker, as well as comparing the experiences of employees contracted to zero-hours with those contracted to at least 16 hr per week. Twenty-nine semistructured interviews (15 zero-hour, 14 contracted hours) were conducted in the West Midlands of the United Kingdom and analysed using thematic analysis. Across all participants, four predominant stressors were found. First, the level of pay for a job with high levels of responsibility was poor. Second, participants described struggling to maintain an adequate work-life balance due to the varied timings of visits, as well as rude and aggressive behaviour from both service users and their families. Lastly, a lack of peer support and poor care from peers was discussed. However, every respondent described the positive relationships that they develop with service users being a distinct stress reliever. Zero-hours respondents discussed two further stressors. Power refers to the relationship between employee and management, with respondents describing the balance of power being with the management. Uncertainty reflected respondents not having set hours of work or pay, and thus not being able to plan their personal lives and sometimes not being able to pay bills. Findings suggest that domiciliary care workers are exposed to a range of stressors, with zero-hours adding to these. Further research should look into methods to improve both the job role for workers, and redress the power relationships for those with zero-hours contracts.
英国的居家护理工作者在维持和改善有各种需求的服务使用者的生活方面发挥着至关重要的作用。这些员工中约60% 按照零时工合同工作，然而，虽然已知临时工作和轮班等工作条件会影响员工的健康和工作表现，但零时工合同尚未得到广泛研究。该项目首先试图调查作为居家护理工作者工作所带来的压力，并比较签订零时工合同的员工与每周至少签订16小时合同的员工的经历。在英国西米德兰兹郡进行了29次半结构化访谈（15次零时工合同，14次固定工时合同），并使用主题分析法进行了分析。在所有参与者中，发现了四个主要压力源。首先，一份责任重大的工作薪酬水平很低。其次，参与者表示，由于探访时间的变化以及服务使用者及其家人的粗鲁和攻击性行为，他们难以维持适当的工作与生活平衡。最后，讨论了缺乏同伴支持和同伴照顾不佳的问题。然而，每位受访者都描述了他们与服务使用者建立的积极关系是一种明显的压力缓解因素。签订零时工合同的受访者还讨论了另外两个压力源。权力指的是员工与管理层之间的关系，受访者表示权力平衡掌握在管理层手中。不确定性反映出受访者没有固定的工作时间或薪酬，因此无法规划个人生活，有时甚至无法支付账单。研究结果表明，居家护理工作者面临一系列压力源，零时工合同加剧了这些压力。进一步的研究应探讨改善工作岗位的方法，并纠正签订零时工合同者的权力关系。
