`The Figures, the Personality and the Bums': Service Work and Sexuality

Abstract

This paper examines the role of sexuality in the labour process in a case study drawn from the off-course betting industry, as a contribution to the discussion of forms of service work. It draws on ethnographic research in three betting shops of a major bookmaking company. Echoing recent studies of sexuality and work, the paper argues that sexuality represents a strong undercurrent in organizational power relationships, and in the tacit expectations of employees. Such expectations, often codified in terms of ambiguous references to `personality', impact on both recruitment processes and authority and peer relations in the organisation of work. If such expectations of necessity remain implicit, sexuality is also shown to be an unstable managerial resource which can emerge as a problematic area of social relations in work