White-collar opt-out: How “good jobs” fail elite workers
By: Yavaş, Mustafa
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Material type: 
BookPublisher: American Sociological Review Description: 89(4), Aug, 2024: p.761-788.Subject(s): Opting out, Alienation, Consent, Working life, Turnover
In:
American Sociological ReviewSummary: Why do elite professionals leave hard-earned, privileged corporate careers? This article examines an underappreciated case of employee turnover, white-collar opt-out, which involves resignations that may not immediately lead to a similar job or life experience, but are instead followed by alternatives to fast-track careers, including seeking another occupation, stay-at-home parenting, or pursuit of leisure and self-exploration. Drawing on 70 in-depth interviews with Turkish professional-managerial employees of transnational corporations located in both Istanbul and New York City, I examine their narratives about the quality of working life and their decisions to opt out through the lenses of worker consent and alienation. I identify the lack of work-life balance and fulfillment with one’s labor as drivers of opting out, showing how these push factors, combined with various pull factors of non-working life and safety nets, encourage elite workers to overcome status anxiety and abandon corporate careers. The article extends labor process theory insights into high-paying corporate occupations, illuminating how so-called “good jobs” may produce a relatively low quality of working life. It also exposes the inherent limits of resource-centered approaches to inequality, showing how alienating work can undermine the quality of life of even upwardly mobile, high-skilled workers.- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00031224241263497
| Item type | Current location | Call number | Vol info | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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Articles
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | 89(4), Aug, 2024: p.761-788 | Available | AR133724 |
Why do elite professionals leave hard-earned, privileged corporate careers? This article examines an underappreciated case of employee turnover, white-collar opt-out, which involves resignations that may not immediately lead to a similar job or life experience, but are instead followed by alternatives to fast-track careers, including seeking another occupation, stay-at-home parenting, or pursuit of leisure and self-exploration. Drawing on 70 in-depth interviews with Turkish professional-managerial employees of transnational corporations located in both Istanbul and New York City, I examine their narratives about the quality of working life and their decisions to opt out through the lenses of worker consent and alienation. I identify the lack of work-life balance and fulfillment with one’s labor as drivers of opting out, showing how these push factors, combined with various pull factors of non-working life and safety nets, encourage elite workers to overcome status anxiety and abandon corporate careers. The article extends labor process theory insights into high-paying corporate occupations, illuminating how so-called “good jobs” may produce a relatively low quality of working life. It also exposes the inherent limits of resource-centered approaches to inequality, showing how alienating work can undermine the quality of life of even upwardly mobile, high-skilled workers.- Reproduced
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00031224241263497
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