Seasonal hotel jobs: an occupation and a way of life

✍ Scribed by Darren Lee-Ross

• Book ID: 101311170
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 127 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1099-2340
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1522-1970(199907/08)1:4<239::aid-jtr169>3.0.co;2-9

✦ Synopsis

Research for the present study was undertaken in the summer of 1995. This paper seeks to identify whether Salaman's notion of occupational communities' exists in a sample of six British seasonal seaside hotels, a relatively unexplored sector of the hotel industry. Brie¯y, occupational communities have as their major focus the job itself and they are also characterised by a fusing of work and leisure activities. Interviews with 30 hotel workers indicate that seasonal, and particularly live-in workers, tend to form distinct occupational communities'. These communities, however, are different to `traditional' occupational communities in a number of respects. Most importantly, instead of the job itself being the focus for community formation, job importance is replaced by work situations characterised by hedonism and close social bonding.