Firm Entry, Tracking System, Careers, Status Negotiation

In the previous chapter, I outlined the wider historical, socio-cultural, legal, and economic climate of the late 1990s. In this chapter, I examine how those transitions shape JCar’s employment practices, workers’ identities, and career trajectories. Thus, in examining employment practices, I keep to the core themes of the book, and my analysis refers to gender, status politics, and ideology. Chapter 4 thus explores the following areas of employment practice: recruitment and route of entry (via personal connections; female university and junior college graduates; male university graduates in clerical and technical positions; disabled persons); the tracking system—discussion of the clerical and career tracks (including inter- and intra-gender differences); the changing conception and experience of occupational role; conversion to the career track; women’s career aspirations; women and men’s talk of male careers; personality and appearance of new recruits; femininity (masculinity is discussed in chapter 6); and, the changing social perception of female office workers. Without further ado, let us explore JCar’s employment practices in detail.