Doing a « dirty job » : what relationship to work ? The case of prison officers[Faire un « sale boulot » : quel rapport au travail ? Le cas des surveillants pénitentiaires]

Academic research in Human Resource Management (HRM) has paid little attention to the study of ‘dirty jobs' (Hugues, 1951). Here, the originality of our approach lies in examining the relationship to work of groups of people in occupations that typically attract little attention. In this paper, we therefore propose to analyse the example of prison officers, who are essential yet little studied in management sciences. Faced with significant social challenges, they illustrate the intensity of the relationship to work at play in this particular environment. How do they perceive their work? Through the lens of ‘dirty work' (Ibid) and ‘real work' (Chakor, 2020), we hypothesise that the interactions they engage in whilst on duty – with a variety of stakeholders – profoundly influence the nature of their relationship with work. We employ a qualitative approach utilising biographical interviews, observation and an immersion placement. As this study is situated within the field of human resource management (HRM), we shall seek to identify the lessons that can be drawn from it for application within prisons.