Overview:
In Hard at Work, Francis Green presents a new, up-to-date account of job quality to understand the immense variety and range of jobs, as well as the evolution of these jobs in the twenty-first century. Drawing on economics, industrial relations, sociology, psychology, and ergonomics, as well as new data sources from countries around the world, Green constructs a unified and interdisciplinary conceptual framework that illustrates the impacts of job quality on our health and wellbeing. He finds that while some work environments can be meaningful, well-paced, safe, well-paid, and supportive, others can be tightly controlled, low-paid, dangerous, insecure, and fast-paced. With this broad picture of job quality, Green turns to various issues that impact workers–the failure to improve job quality and workers’ wellbeing at work despite long-term economic growth, the declining share of labor income, the general increase in work demands, and the prospects for job quality in the new automated world of work.