Just a job : stuckness and security in the lives of women in the freezing works in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
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Date
2023
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Massey University
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Abstract
Women employed at freezing works in Aotearoa New Zealand are often understood to be “stuck” in a shit job. As no qualifications are required to work at freezing works, it is considered to be “just a job”, lacking the social and economic mobility of a career. This is because, under neoliberalism, a good job is one that is self-fulfilling and that allows you to “go places” or “get ahead”. However, the flip side of mobility is economic precarity and insecurity. Based on interviews with nine female freezing workers, as well as autoethnography, this thesis demonstrates women’s own understanding of what it means to be stuck in the freezing works. These women do not understand stuckness to be unambiguously negative. Stuckness is also economic security. Freezing works jobs not only provide necessities and some luxuries, but they are also just jobs, that do not demand the full involvement of the self. Contemporary concepts of work cannot fully account for these women’s experiences of work. This thesis, therefore, develops the women’s own concept of “stuckness” as a framework for understanding their work lives. It explores how the freezing works becomes a sticky job, through analysing how women come to work in the freezing works and end up staying there, how they experience everyday work on the production line, and how this stuckness is embodied. This case study demonstrates that in a world of precarity, what looks like getting stuck in a shit job is actually an increasingly rare instance of achieving security.