The search for meaningful work under neo-bureaucracy: Work precarity in freelance TV

Abstract

Drawing from a qualitative, empirical study of the working lives of freelance television workers, we explore the experience of ‘meaningful’ work where aesthetic considerations are attractants to the industry. Such aesthetic considerations – and the glamorous nature of the work – attracted both older and younger freelancers. However, whereas the older cohort had entered the industry in a previous era governed by bureaucratic forms, the younger cohort had entered an already fragmented workplace marked by neo-bureaucratic forms. This shift for freelance workers generally entailed precarious working conditions, long hours, sometimes unpaid and often uncertain jobs: the dark side of meaningful employment. While older freelancers had acquired social networks through their work with large broadcasters, the younger freelancers lacked such networks, making career entry more difficult and uncertain, particularly as neo bureaucratic forms became looser. Widespread exploitation/self-exploitation characterized both groups as they completed work ‘for the love of their art’. Our findings suggest that, theoretically, discussions of meaningful work should be nuanced based on an understanding of organizational form, such as transitions from bureaucratic to neo-bureaucratic governance that impact freelance workers.