‘We are the backbone of the community’ – precarious multiple employment and the complex dynamics of dignity in, out, and between work

This paper critically examines the complex dynamics related to dignity at work (DAW) in contemporary precarious employment in the UK. It argues that current DAW frameworks are typically focused on workers with one job, but what about the experiences of those who need to work in multiple jobs to make ends meet? To consider this, the paper focuses on the complex experiences related to dignity when navigating between and participating in different workplaces, presenting the notion of ‘dignity in, out and between work’. It provides a four-dimensional framework to renew DAW debates. The first two reflect original DAW frameworks revealing ‘work intensification’ and ‘poor management, exploitation and abuse’. However, this paper expands these conceptually and empirically by presenting a thematic broadening of work intensification and extensification across a mixture of jobs, with fragmented and complex temporal and spatial aspects of work. The third and fourth dimensions contribute two significant elements to DAW discussions. ‘Stigma, humiliation, and shame’ incorporates issues such as in-work poverty and foodbank use. Finally, we emphasise tensions related to ‘the value of work’, where workers’ contribution was not appreciated even if they held socially significant jobs.