While the Covid-19 pandemic seems behind us without really being so, and while for many workers, many aspects of reality seem pretty much the same now as we knew it before, long-term effects on the work floor seem to be lingering, notably concerning health and well-being, but also work-life balance, work motivation and career prospects. Among those most impacted by the changes are, unsurprisingly, the weakest, like those working in the care sector and, more specifically, the domestic and home care services. Equally unsurprisingly, there is an undeniable equality challenge, not least due to the still largely gender-segregated labour market, and to the unbalanced distribution of unrewarding tasks and unpaid work.
In this new dossier, the Progressive Post explores these topics, asking a largely unexplored question: to what extent is our very conception of the idea of ‘productivity’ gendered, when many forms of face-to-face services, among which care work, are incompatible with the logic of increasing productivity?
