Caring and connectedness in the context of domestic worker employment in South Africa

Abstract

This study investigated workplace relational connectedness qualities in terms of domestic worker employment in a South African setting. Twenty black female domestic workers were recruited through purposive respondent-driven self-sampling. Participants ranged in age from 27 to 59 years. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used to generate the data. An interpretative phenomenological approach was used to foreground the thematic data analysis. Caring and connectedness emerged as the main theme that characterised participants’ positive employment relationships. Identified sub-themes related to participants’ experience of their employment context, work engagement and treatment, psychosocial well-being and communication. The findings are consistent with the broaden-and-build theory which proposes a positive behavioural cycle which results from reciprocal actions.