Sociology in the workplace

Marginal jobs differ from the traditional four norms of employment, including: legality of content, regular from an institutional perspective, stable, and offering sufficient pay for employees. Many jobs are considered marginal because they deal with socially unacceptable practices and what is known as deviant work that is typically either illegal or highly frowned upon. Secondly, unregulated work is another breach from the typical norms. A job is considered marginal when it does not follow typical government regulations for the protection and betterment of employees. Third, when a job is not stable it is marginal. Temporary or limited time frame for the job, meaning that the job is not meant to be permanent or a major career for the individual working in the position. Finally, insufficient pay is another tell-tale sign of a marginal position. Being paid minimum wage, where the worker cannot survive without supplemental income would make a job marginal. Typically, the most vulnerable populations work in marginal positions. This includes the youngest members of the labor force, including teens, and also immigrants with questionable legal status. They know much less about their rights, and are often unwilling to risk their position to secure more rights for themselves and their coworkers.

Question 2

Skill Upgrading occurs when employers and companies improve the skills of their workers in order so that employees can better deal with increasing technologies and more complicated changes to the work environment. This often requires extensive retraining and educational programs. On the other hand, Deskilling occurs when technology is implemented that removes the need for having skilled workers. In this case, automated or factory line style technologies replace the need for keeping skilled workers, and thus workers are either deskilled or replaced with less skilled workers altogether. This is most often the case for workers in marginal jobs, who only receive technical training on a limited aspect of the implemented system, and not a more thorough education that they could use on future positions and technology later in their career. Finally, there are Mixed Effects positions. This occurs when automated systems or robots are implemented, deskilling workers on the process of production, yet it forces an upgrade of skills in order to maintain and service such complicated machinery. Such positions often require a much more technical background, and are not common in marginal positions, as companies will often look to third parties to maintain and service complicated machinery.

Question 3