“I Have Been Working Since I Was Six Years Old”. Combining Shadowing with Biographical Interviews to Study Occupational Health
First, I show how shadowing (spending up to 7 hours a day accompanying workers in their daily routine) allowed me to fully appreciate the mental and physical health and safety risks deriving from the specificity of the work environment and the intensity of the workload of healthcare assistants. This occurred, I argue, because shadowing made me aware of aspects that are usually not talked about in interviews as they are ‘embodied’ and given for granted (e.g: smells, noises) or are purposefully omitted being illegal or morally condemned (e.g.: the full consequences of working understaffed).
Second, I show how, on the other hand, biographical interviews allowed me to appreciate how the social processes that make working-class women suitable candidates for these low-wage, physically and mentally demanding jobs in the care sector, are similar to those making them perform informal or unpaid work throughout their life.
The holistic view on healthcare assistants’ health made possible by this integrated approach can inform evidence-based policy suggestions. In particular, I show how the health of healthcare assistants, mostly women coming from working-class backgrounds and entering the formal labour market later in their life, is negatively impacted by the combined effects of: having to perform an extremely demanding job, made even more intense due to staff shortages; earning low wages that oblige them to work multiple jobs; the high retirement age and a pension system that does not recognize the work they carried out informally throughout their life.