Williams and Connell – Looking Good and Sounding Right- Aesthetic Labor and Social Inequality in the Retail Industry PDF

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Williams and Connell – Looking Good and Sounding Right: Aesthetic Labor and Social Inequality in the Retail Industry Soft skills – evaluating aesthetic labor – is subjective, peoples bias enters and it can be the basis for covert discrimination • Less than $10 an hour, variable schedules, retail workers do not earn enough money to support themselves • Retail workers who are not desperate – work at high-end retail chain stores – can maintain their livelihoods without relying on jobs o Why do some employers prefer to hire relatively well-to-do workers in their stores? o How do employers acquire this labor? o What are the social consequences of this employment preference? • Interviews with 19 retail workers in high-end stores associated with national brands • Aesthetic labor – includes a worker’s department, style, accent, voice, and attractiveness – how to build this aesthetic labor with part-time and low-wage jobs with no benefits? • Why do workers consent to work in these bad jobs when hired – effective resistance is almost impossible – labor law increasingly defends employers’ rights to demand workers’ aesthetic conformity to their brand Theoretical Background o Service jobs are accountable two different “masters” – employers and customers – server interactions extract max efficiency and productivity o Soft skills – a term used by economic sociologists to refer to personality, attitude, and behavior requirements for employment in service jobs or people skills o Aesthetic labor similar to emotional labor – refers to aspects of job that enact particular emotional states, Bourdieu concept of habitus refers to mannerisms that are acquired in childhood and are difficult to alter later in life – argues individuals are conditioned by their particular location in class-stratified society to think o Not new, upscale department stores have imposed dress code and grooming standards on frontline workers – an old labor practice – retail employers are no longer committed to training and transforming the work force, aside from store operations – employers in the US today do not invest in their workers or expect to retain them on a long-term basis o Lifestyle branding is also new – stores attempt to distinguish themselves by advertising their association with particular “lifestyles” Method o Retail industry has resisted upgrade quality of its frontline jobs – range of jobs, cashiers, floor workers, stockers, sups and managers Finding Habitus o Strategies used to identify workers who embody appropriate aesthetic ▪ Vetting creative talents, hiring customers off the floor, offering discounts instead of higher wages, prolonging interviews and manipulating schedules

o Some stores ask applicants to perform creative tasks during interviews however are never used in work, only for personality, style, and imagination o Retail workers are not permitted to stray from highly regimented routines so screening by design skill seems pointless o Hiring off the floor selects workers who are already knowledgeable and ideally passionate about the brand o Discount is primary draw for retail workers o Prolong interviews and manipulate schedules – can take weeks, eliminates people in the job pool dependent on their paycheck Social Consequences of Aesthetic Labor o Demand for aesthetic labor in upscale retail work has altered labor process, appeals interest of worker-consumer, justifies continued job segregation, contributes to consumer fetishism o Consumer Pleasure o Job Segregation ▪ Almost perfect sorting of people on the basis of race, class, and gender ▪ Interviewee argues employees should be selected on the basis of style Fetishism of Consumption Fetishism of Commodities – Marx – describe a social-psychological consequence of living in a money economy Conclusion o Aesthetic labor consists of the requirement that service workers look good and sound right – employees selected on the basis of whether they match the brand image SUMMARY The article investigates how retail employers attract middle-class employees to retail jobs that have fewer benefits and low wages. The authors used interviews to collect data from retail employees. They also applied Bourdieu's theory in analyzing how workers are attracted to these bad jobs. The preliminary findings indicated that employers appeal to the interests of the consumers to attract workers. Employers often use labor practices that are based on gender and race discrimination, job segregation, and fetishism of buying to attract workers. The authors argue that these practices are aesthetic labor tactics that only require the retail workers to look good and sound correct. The article concludes by arguing against aesthetic labor practices that only reward the relationship between employees and the brands they sell. It advocates for upgrading retail jobs to provide better benefits and wages rather than maintain the status quo....