Time Constraints and Difficult Working Conditions: Paradoxes in the Professionalization of Home Care Services

A statistical survey conducted in 2008 by DREES (French Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics), targeting home support workers, allows for a precise analysis of their working conditions and time schedules. Relevant assessments previously drawn from monographic surveys revealing rather low working hours are confirmed. Hence, when these workers access quasi full-time jobs they experience many difficulties in terms of temporal constraints and working conditions. By comparing different forms of intervention, it is possible to identify interactions liable to explain the specific link between the professionalisation of these jobs and their strenuous working conditions : factors associated with professional streamlining (qualification requirements, specialisation with vulnerable persons, seniority, etc.) clearly appear related to increasingly difficult working conditions.