Gunnarsson Malin, Törrönen Jukka
Department of Public Health Science, Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Nordisk Alkohol Nark. 2022 Oct;39(5):473-486. doi: 10.1177/14550725221108796. Epub 2022 Jun 28.
Work is an important part of most people's everyday lives and well-being. Substance use by employees is associated with several negative consequences, such as absence from work and poor work performance. The study examines the strategies through which people who have problems with substance use produce a "normal" self and avoid becoming stigmatised in the workplace. The study uses data from in-depth unstructured life story interviews, which were conducted over phone with 13 people. The participants had developed various problematic heavy substance use habits. The interviews were analysed by applying interactional analysis and by using Goffman's concepts of "normality", "embarrassment", "face-work", "stigma" and "performance". The analysis identified multiple strategies the participants used to produce normality and to avoid embarrassment and stigmatisation at work. These include skilful use of drugs in order not to show withdrawal symptoms, various ways of hiding their heavy substance use, frequent change of jobs, the maintenance of a clean and professional look, and attributing the absence from work to mental or physical illness. Moreover, the participants strategically avoided social contacts in which embarrassing situations could arise. When this was not possible, they manipulated their corporeal looks by hiding such kinds of bodily marks that would connote abnormality. The analysis points out that maintaining normality at work does not only refer to the efforts of trying to hide the effects of the drugs on behaviours and the body. It also reveals that the participants used substances to be able to perform energetically their work tasks, and in this way present themselves as normal workers. This ambivalence in performing normality makes the work life of people who use substances challenging.
工作是大多数人日常生活和幸福的重要组成部分。员工使用药物与多种负面后果相关,比如旷工和工作表现不佳。该研究考察了有药物使用问题的人塑造“正常”自我并避免在工作场所被污名化的策略。该研究使用了来自深度非结构化生活故事访谈的数据,这些访谈通过电话对13人进行。参与者养成了各种有问题的严重药物使用习惯。通过应用互动分析并使用戈夫曼的“常态”“尴尬”“面子工作”“污名”和“表现”等概念对访谈进行了分析。分析确定了参与者用来营造正常状态并避免在工作中感到尴尬和被污名化的多种策略。这些策略包括巧妙使用药物以免表现出戒断症状、隐藏其大量使用药物的各种方式、频繁更换工作、保持干净专业的外表,以及将旷工归因于精神或身体疾病。此外,参与者策略性地避免可能出现尴尬情况的社交接触。当无法避免时,他们会通过隐藏那些会暗示异常的身体痕迹来操控自己的身体外表。分析指出,在工作中维持正常状态不仅指努力隐藏药物对行为和身体的影响。这还表明参与者使用药物以便能够精力充沛地完成工作任务,并以此将自己展现为正常的工作者。这种在表现正常状态时的矛盾心理使得使用药物者的工作生活充满挑战。