“FRIEND-ISH”: HOME CARE WORKERS, ‘SOCIAL LABOUR’ AND
MANAGING THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CARER RELATIONSHIP
Jack Lam
Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland
Janeen Baxter
Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland
No. 2020–17
August 2020
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY
A rise in services sector employment has led to increased attention on the myriad forms
of labour workers must enact as part of their jobs. In an ageing society, whereby social
support is increasingly acknowledged as important for healthy ageing and in fact funded
by governments, how does this shape the nature of care work? Further, what are the
dilemmas workers face, especially when they are challenged to provide services with
‘loving care’? Drawing on rich qualitative interview data with fifty older adult consumers,
we build on and extend prior studies that have documented the different components of
home care work, to begin to lay out another form of labour—social labour— whereby home
care support workers need to actively manage the relationship boundary between the
professional services they perform and the personal relationships that may develop.
Drawing on interviews with fifty older adult consumers, we find that home care support
workers need to engage in social labour through 1) following the lead of clients who set
out the terms of the relationship and the degree of sociality, 2) managing the potential
dual role of a ‘support worker’ and a ‘friend’, and 3) meeting the social needs of clients
vulnerable to isolation, as well as attending to clients at vulnerable times. Our findings
highlight the complexity of the relationship between care workers and consumers, and
the negotiation of the professional role that care workers must engage in as an additional
aspect of their employment. As Australian Government programs and the community care
sector increasingly acknowledge the value of social support and companionship, greater
attention is needed to this aspect of employment of care work, with its attendant
implications for both workers and clients.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jack Lam is Research Fellow at The University of Queensland Institute for Social Science
Research and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course.
His main research interests are in families, health and ageing. Email: j.lam@uq.edu.au
Janeen Baxter is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Australian Research Council
Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course in the Institute for
Social Science Research at The University of Queensland. She has research interests in
gender inequality, unpaid work, social disadvantage, wellbeing and life-course and
longitudinal research. Email: j.baxter@uq.edu.au
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for
Children and Families over the Life Course (project number CE140100027) and a University
of Queensland Early Career Researcher Grant. The authors would also like to acknowledge
the research assistance of Lachlan Green and Catherine Dickson.
DISCLAIMER: The content of this Working Paper does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions
of the Life Course Centre. Responsibility for any information and views expressed in this Working
Paper lies entirely with the author(s).
ABSTRACT
A rise in services sector employment has led to increased attention on the myriad forms
of labour workers must enact as part of their jobs. In this study, we extend prior studies
to develop the concept of ‘social labour,’ whereby home care support workers—as an
example of an increasingly large part of the services economy—need to actively manage
the relationship boundary between the professional services they perform and the
personal relationships that may develop. This is especially likely given repeated
interactions between the workers and the clients, and the commodification of the ‘loving
care’ that the aged care sector emphasises as a value-add of their services. Drawing on
interviews with fifty older adult consumers, we find that home care support workers need
to engage in social labour through 1) following the lead of clients who set out the terms
of the relationship and the degree of sociality, 2) managing the potential dual role of a
‘support worker’ and a ‘friend’, and 3) meeting the social needs of clients vulnerable to
isolation, as well as attending to clients at vulnerable times. Our findings highlight the
complexity of the relationship between care workers and consumers, and the negotiation
of the professional role that care workers must engage in as an additional aspect of their
employment. As Australian Government programs and the community care sector
increasingly acknowledge the value of social support and companionship, greater
attention is needed to this aspect of employment of care work, with its attendant
implications for both workers and clients.
Keywords: home care support; professional boundaries; interviews; social support
Suggested citation: Lam, J. & Baxter, J. (2020). ‘“Friend-ish”: Home Care Workers,
‘Social Labour’ and Managing the Boundaries of the Carer Relationship'. Life Course Centre
Working Paper Series, 2020-17. Institute for Social Science Research, The University of
Queensland.
1
1. Introduction
Changes in employment and the rise of service sector jobs have produced a number of
studies documenting new forms of labour performed by workers (Hochschild 1983;
Ravenelle 2019). The shift towards services sector employment has seen an
acknowledgment of the increasing importance of customer interactions, as workers on
the front-line engage with clients, requiring them to perform their services while at the
same time managing various social interactions. A concept that has been well discussed
is the idea of emotional labour (Hochschild 1983), whereby workers are required to
manage their feelings and at times display emotions that they may not necessarily feel.
The performance of emotional labour and the experience of emotional strain from care
work have been described in various studies of home care workers (King 2016; Stacey
2005). While these studies have highlighted the emotional state that workers may be in
at particular moments, less attention has been paid to the relationship that workers and
clients must navigate, as they interact with each other over time. The sociality of the
work is further compounded by the nature of the physical environment where home care
services are performed (i.e. in the client’s home), as well as the physicality of the labour,
where workers are often performing personal tasks such as bathing, cleaning and
housework.
In recent years, with the global demographic shift towards an older population and an
ongoing cultural shift towards ageing in the home (Australian Institute for Health &
Welfare, 2013; Wiles, Leibing, Guberman, Reeve & Allen 2011), the role of home care
support workers in the community aged care sector is becoming increasingly important in
ensuring older people can reap the social and cultural benefits of ageing in place. These
include maintaining their connections and community, and benefitting from familiarity
and personal security (Wiles, Leibing, Guberman, Reeve & Allen 2011). When it comes to
assisting with daily living activities, domestic assistance and other defined tasks, the role
and boundaries of each carer is clear and well defined. Yet, the social nature of the
optimal carer-consumer relationship remains ill-defined and relatively unexplored.
Findings from other care settings note carer companionship as playing a part in increased
quality of life for older people receiving care (Nakrem, Vinsnes, & Seim, 2011; Robichaud,
Durand, Bédard, & Ouellet, 2006).
Further, while the emotional and physical aspects of care work have been recognized and
discussed (England and Dyck 2011; Johnson 2015), the social component of the labour has