transitions in the south waikato labour market: an ethnographic study

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I know the guy at the garage and did a few ‘homers’ 2 for him and hewanted a full-time worker.It was word of mouth. A friend told me to apply, so there was a contactthere.Being part of a community of some sort was also advantageous in this regard.Obviously relationships forged by living in a geographical locality were important.The main reason why I got a job here is because they know me.Conversely, when a person is not known in a community they might lack these links.In some cases, others might be able to provide them instead.I came back with a couple of mates from Aussie and that is their hometown and they knew the boss and I started working there.Belonging to professional or occupational communities could be significant as well.This was acknowledged by a young man who drew on his father’s long-standingmembership of the farming community to help him find a job after he returned fromoverseas.I rung my father and said if you knew of anything get back to me, and hesaid I know of a job that is coming up as an assistant manager.For this next woman, her localised professional associations proved invaluable forproviding a steady stream of work.People just know that you are a teacher and they just ring you. I mean I amalways been called now, are you interested yet. It just seems to happen.Forging such professional links was often done deliberately to enhance a person’semployment prospects. This is apparent in the circumstances of the young farmer, afew years later.I’m involved in the trust that is here and the trust is run by a manager andhe has got such associations with other trusts and so if we do a good job forhim we will sort of work ourselves up the ladder to a bigger job. … sobeing involved with the manager of the trust which gives me a few moreoptions which are available to me.Usually, however, networks were not cultivated with this expressed purpose. Rather,any benefits that emerged were incidental to the relationships people had. This did notdiminish their obvious importance for those interviewed.This importance lay in the range of assistance that networks provided. As is obviousfrom many of the quotes presented thus far, they put people in touch with workopportunities and some contacts used their position to influence the selection processby putting forward a person and recommending them. The degree of influence thatcontacts like family members, friends, and former colleagues were able to exertappeared, at times, to be quite considerable. Take this next instance where, despite_____________________________________________________________________2 A ‘homer’ is a job a person does outside of the normal business operation – say a mechanic fixes afriend’s car at home (hence the name).44
appearing to have limited knowledge about the work that a job entailed, a woman wasoffered a position partly due to her relationship with the employer.Talking to a lady that is a manager [there] - she is a friend of the family -and I was on a work experience there and two weeks later she came in andtalked to me … She asked me if I liked working with handicap[ped] peopleand I didn’t know what she was talking about. But she explained it to meand went back to her job, and then about two days later I got a phone calland got an interview for a caregiver. So I went up and then I started … andI’ve been there since then.Importantly, as both parties could gain, the benefits of social networks were not justone way. Not only did a person get work, but an employer did not have to engagesomeone who was unknown to them. Rather, they could give the job to a personwhom they, or someone they trusted, knew. In the above case this seemed moreimportant than other factors. Given the costs and practical demands associated withreplacing a worker, potential employees identified through social networks could savea great deal of time and money.For those seeking work, social networks proved useful for finding a range ofemployment, from full-time jobs to causal work. This woman had got a seasonal jobthrough a neighbour. 3I had a girlfriend who lived three houses up from me and she used to workfor him part-time. And they needed someone to pick strawberries, and thatis how it started. She said that your daughter is at kindy why don’t youcome and do it while she is at kindy.Whilst taking time out from his full-time job, this man got sufficient under-the-tablecasual work to manage financially. His contacts were very informal, but still crucial.I probably didn’t do much here for a good eight months, I suppose, so I justbasically did a bit of weed spraying and that. …You run into them at thepub and ask them if they want to get their weeds sprayed and stuff.In the case of another man, following the closure of his own business, networks werepivotal in him finding a host of work opportunities. Part of this lay in his strongassociations with the local community. For some time prior to and then after thebusiness was wound up, he did a range of casual work utilising his many skills. Hiswife describes what happened..Everybody knows us and so if you haven’t got a job people up the road say,“Oh we’ve got some concreting up the beach house that you can do” … andsomebody else says, “We’ve got a whole lot of fencing”. And that was alljust part-time jobs but we often did a job nearly everyday. It started offwhen he was working at the engineering place.Despite anxieties about getting a job, he also found a permanent full-time positionquite easily through the social networks he had.He just went to get some stuff from the plumbing place, he was putting atoilet in my ensuite. He knows the lady in the office there because she usedto be our office lady here when we had work. And she asked him what hewas doing and she said that there is [a job] here coming up and so [he] gotit and started on Monday._____________________________________________________________________3 This was actually prior to the study period.45
Page 1 and 2: TRANSITIONS IN THE SOUTH WAIKATOLAB
Page 3: AcknowledgementsThe material genera
Page 7 and 8: INTRODUCTION(i)Research Background
Page 9 and 10: The findings from this phase of the
Page 11 and 12: Transitions can occur in a range of
Page 13 and 14: Table 1: Factors considered in anal
Page 15 and 16: Twenty years ago, a 100 acre farm w
Page 17 and 18: Illustrating a more volatile patter
Page 19 and 20: The role of education and training
Page 21 and 22: Though she had previously worked in
Page 23 and 24: employment opportunities cannot be
Page 25 and 26: Thus, he got a contract milking pos
Page 27 and 28: It’s like living on the bones of
Page 29 and 30: Though not confined to those receiv
Page 31 and 32: Though his various roles fitted rea
Page 33 and 34: Probably when [my middle son] start
Page 35 and 36: also gone on School camping trips a
Page 37 and 38: given his health. The voluntary pos
Page 39 and 40: (i)Self-employmentSelf-employment p
Page 41 and 42: employment, this group of self-empl
Page 43 and 44: This marketing proved difficult, co
Page 45 and 46: when interviewed. Of the others who
Page 47 and 48: children, was able to work three pa
Page 49: what he was doing. However, he conc
Page 53 and 54: 6. RELOCATIONSThough it covers peop
Page 55 and 56: change schools it was a good time f
Page 57 and 58: CONCLUSIONIn contrast to those theo
Page 59 and 60: surveys conducted in them to gather
Page 61 and 62: Gallie, D., Gershuny, J. & Vogler,
Page 63: Whitwell, J. and Thompson, M. A. (e

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