CAHS RELACS + COB FARG Combined Event

Ivey MacKenzie, Associate Professor of Management, Candice Lanius, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts, Rhys O'Donnell, Sociology, Christina R. Steidl, Associate Professor of Sociology, Wafa Hakim Orman, Associate Professor of Economics and Computational Analysis

Title: Essential Workers, Dirty Jobs: Perceptions of Occupational Prestige During the Covid Pandemic

Abstract: "Dirty jobs" is a term used to describe work that is considered disgusting or degrading; workers stuck in "dirty jobs" have traditionally been stigmatized because of their job. This presentation shares the results of a two-part study of occupational prestige during the Coronavirus pandemic. The first part of the project looked at how social media posts during COVID impacted people's view of certain occupations. We saw posts thanking essential workers, but did these posts result in people having more positive attitudes about people in those jobs? We found that for some of those jobs it did. The second study addresses how social media posts impacted workers in essential jobs. If an essential worker saw people thanking them for keeping the grocery store shelves filled or preparing meals, did that make the essential worker in a dirty job feel better about the job? We found that essential workers felt an increase in their hero status and an increase in their perception of the job's social stigma.

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