The body and mental labor and the social mobility of Spa workers

• Main Authors: Chueh-Yin Liu, 劉珏吟
• Other Authors: Mei-Ling Pan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76367085884373645911

碩士 === 元智大學 === 資訊社會學研究所 === 93 === This research is focused on the body and mental labor, and the social mobility of Spa workers. Firstly, the research illustrates body and mental labor of Spa workers in two ways. One is Physical labor and the rest is Emotional labor. While facing the control of labor process, Spa workers must achieve the standard operation procedure to show their professional. In order to achieve the working performance, Spa workers have to accept the exploiting of physical labor such as the exhausting of hand and body strength. Otherwise, Spa workers should provide the positive surface acting and positive deep acting, as well as control their negative emotion when they interact with customers. Secondly, the research uses the theory of the Politics of Production from Burawoy to discuss the system of labor of Spa workers. The employers use the political apparatus of production such as hierarchy, wage system, inner labor market, and system of bargaining to let Spa workers under control and producing the consentaneous effect from economical exploiting, politics and ideology. Under the game of making out of piece-rate, the employers and Spa workers will reach the consent, and bring out the effect of voluntary servitude. Although the employers are the key to shape the labor of Spa workers, expectation of social mobility helps those Spa workers to create other ways out. According to the research, there are three ways out for Spa workers: 1. promotion in the internal labor market; 2. shifting jobs to other company in the same industry; 3. become one's own boss, eg. self-employment. Social mobility seems like to create the way out to help employees to control their future and to reduce the manipulation from others. However, from workers to bosses is only a dream provided by employers to attract the employees to produce the consentaneous effect. This is not only unhelpful to form the class consciousness of workers, but also reproduce the capitalist system that has exploited them.