Ansprüche an Arbeit und Leben – Beschäftigte als soziale Akteure

Do employees want to have good working conditions – or do they demand them? The article argues that this makes a fundamental conceptual difference in the analysis of the orientation of employees and their self-constitution as social actors. Thus, we start with the distinction of “wishes” for and “expectations” of good working conditions. It is shown then that expectations made of work cannot be analysed without taking into account the biographical and social life; which are always and necessarily part of the demands made on work and life. At present, however, the self-confidence to make demands for good work has to be regarded as fundamentally unsettled, amongst those “normally” employed, i.e. in relatively stable employment. Yet, this uncertainty is not to be confused with the widely assumed internalisation of neoliberal invocations. It is precisely such internalisation that we do not find in the expectations of employees towards their work.