Lifestyles, Work lives and Social Lives of Retail Employees

Work occupies a significant proportion in our life and is  a symbol of personal identity, status and economic reward. in the history of occupations the most important transformations of life and work has been predominance of service sector. With this economic transmutation there has been a considerable impact on individual’s identity, attitudes, perceptions followed by social change. Whilst, retail globalisation has brought in profound change in the society as well as in the life of people who are directly or indirectly involved. Retail super stores, malls, and Marts are fast changing the Indian urban environment and the way of living. The organised stores have set in the new trend of employment and job seeking for the unemployed youth of cities. This paper explores workers response to challenges presented by the labour market dynamics and new forms of workplace socialisation. It also focuses on workers perceptions and attitudes over their job, the kinds of jobs being done, who is doing them and what is happening in their work/social lives.