Employees’ categories of agency on “corona streets”
The consequences of the COVID-19 for low-threshold treatment programs in Helsinki at the beginning of the pandemic
Keywords:
COVID-19, low-threshold programs, membership categorization, agencyAbstract
The study examines the consequences of the Covid-19 that broke out in the early spring of 2020 for low-threshold treatment programs and the agency of employees in Helsinki. Employees in several organizations moved on the streets to work with clients as the restrictions closed services. The research task is to find out, what kind of categories of agency are formed when the employees reflect on the events of the initial phase of the pandemic. Focus group discussions conducted in the fall of 2021 with employees who have taken to the streets are used as data.
The frame of reference of the study is the membership categorization approach based on the ethnomethodological research trend. The category of agency refers to the characteristics and features that the employees associated with themselves and each other and other actors in the different stages of the events they described. The data has first been classified chronologically by using a data-driven content analysis. Based on the classification, four themes have been formed: 1) confusion and the creation of new ways of acting, 2) going out on the streets and getting organized, 3) conditions of the clientele on the streets, 4) mental stress in changed working conditions. Next, the themes have been analysed using method of membership categorization.
As a result, the categories of agency that were formed in the conversations were responsible professionalism, ethical and moral cooperation, emergency-responsive limited agency, and tired agency. Identification with categories that express creative professionalism, and a sense of responsibility were emphasized in the data. At the same time, the limitation of agency, lack of appreciation and declining of mental recourses come to the fore.
The study suggests that the state of the employees’ mental load should be examined more. The ways to properly resource low-threshold programs and increase appreciation should be considered. In the future, society’s readiness to face crisis should be examined in a multifaceted way and action plans, that would secure the dignified life of those in vulnerable life situation, should be drawn up.
