Rodents, Bodily Fluids, and Dirty Plates: The Management of ‘Dirty Work’ in the UK Hospitality Industry

Forms of dirty work consume the job role requirements for a bartender working in a public house (pub) in the UK. Rather than performing dirty labour due to medical intervention of health issues, for example, mopping up bodily fluids (vomit and excrement), collecting dirty plates and used glasses, picking up used drug paraphernalia, wiping down grimy tables in a pub are, in most cases, a product of enjoyment. This paper will outline the management of dirty work through the lens of organisational requirements (e.g., processes and procedures), third-party institutions (e.g., environmental health), and employees (e.g., management of ‘dirt’, concealment from customers). While the former set the conditions of ‘cleanliness’ from far removed locations, the (low-paid) employees bear the brunt of the symbolic and material effects of managing ‘dirt’ at work. At organisational level, pub corporations have been accused by the participants of this study of half-heartedly managing health and safety, while failing to provide relevant training, which has negatively impacted employee engagement and wellbeing. At an individual level, employees adopt coping mechanisms when having to deal with degrading and disgusting tasks at work. They, for example, may pass off cleaning to customers, lower-echeloned workers, or new starters, dissociate while performing these tasks, or adopt collective emotional labour – the management and enticement of feeling and display between colleagues – to aid in the conjuring of ‘professional’ display. The data presented in this paper is an outcome of a wider project in which I undertook a year-long hybrid ethnography in a pub based in Central London. I worked as a bartender, adopting participant observation and observant participation, to investigate pub workers’ experiences of emotion and managerial control through the eyes of both the self and other.