The new world of work and employment: fitness workers and what they want from the employment relationship

Abstract

This paper reports on an empirically based study of the Queensland (Australia) health
and fitness industry over 15 years (1993 -2008). This study traces the development of
the new occupation of fitness instructor in a service industry which has evolved si nce
the 1980s and is embedded in values of consumption and individualism. It is the new
world of work.
The data from the 1993 study was historically significant, capturing the conditions o f
employment in an unregulated setting prior to the introduction of the first industrial
a ward in that industry in 1994. Fitness workers bargained directly with employers over
all a spects of the employment relationship without the constraints of industrial
regulation or the presence of trade unions. The substantive outcomes of the
employment relationship were a direct reflection of m anagerial prerogative and worker
orientation and preference, and did not reflect the rewards and outcomes traditionally
found in Australian workplaces. While the focus of the 1993 research was on exploring
the employment relationship in a deregulated environment, an unusual phenomenon
was identified: fitness workers happily trading-off what would be considere d standard
working conditions for the opportunity to work (‘take the stage’).
Since then, several streams of literature have evolved providing a new context for
understanding this phenomenon in the fitness industry, including: the sociology of the
body (Shilling 1993; Turner 1996); emotional (Hochschild 1984) and aesthetic labour
(Warhurst et al 2000); the so cial relations of production and space (Lefebvre 1991;
Moss 1995); body history (Helps 2007); the sociology of consumption (Saunders 1988;
Baudrillard 1998; Ritzer 2004); and work identity (Du Gay 1996; Strangleman 2004).
The 2008 survey instrument replicated the 1993 study but was additionally informed b y
the new literature. Surveys were sent to 310 commercial fitness centres and 4,800
fitness workers across Queensland.
Worker orientation appears unchanged, and industry working conditions still seem
atypical despite regulation si nce 1994. We argue that for many fitness workers the goal
is to gain access to the fitness centre economy. For this they are willing to trade-off
standard conditions of employment, and exchange traditional employm ent rewards for
m ore intrinsic psycho-social rewards gained the through e xp o sure of their physical
capital (Bourdieu 1984) o r bo dily prowess to the adoration o f their gazing clients.
Building on the tradition of emotional labour and aesthetic labour, this study introduces
the concept of ocularcentric labour: a state in which labour’s quest for the psychosocial
rewards gained from their own body image shapes the employment relationship.
With ocularcentric labour the p sycho-social rewards have greater value for the worker
than ‘hard’, core conditions of employment, and are a significant factor in bargaining
and outcomes, often substituting fo r direct earnings. The wo rkforce profile (young,
female, casual) and their expectations (psycho-social rewards of ado ration and
celebrity) challenge traditional trade unions in terms of what they can deliver, given the
fitness workers’ willingness to trade-off minimum conditions, hard-won by unions.