Playing on the Job in Adolescent Work Settings

For adolescents in the workplace, playing on the job constitutes an important source of tension release, an opportunity to create solidarity among coworkers, and, less positively, avenues of escape from boring, routine work. Opportunities for play vary according to the setting and the job. Because conditions vary for young employed men and women, young men have greater opportunity to engage in playful behavior than young women whose work lives are more tightly bounded. Moreover, playful behavior creates solidarity among young men while it often denigrates and marginalizes young women. This study examines workplace play among adolescent factory workers, bank personnel, and health spa workers employed in the United States. Observations in the workplace indicate differences among workers in types of play, dependent both on the gender of the worker and on the social organization of the work being carried out in a particular setting. Analytic frameworks from a number of perspectives, including political economy, psychology, and social organizational theory in sociology and anthropology, are viewed as particularly helpful in interpreting the findings in this research.