Feeling, doing, being: occupational well-being and the phenomenology of a blue-collar temporary agency worker within the Swedish manufacturing industry

Abstract This qualitative method study, informed by critical realism, explores the phenomenology of blue-collar temporary agency workers (BC-TAWs) as a foundation for their occupational well-being within the Swedish manufacturing industry. In this study, 11 BC-TAWs were interviewed to understand how BC-TAWs’ intentionality of social relations constitutes a foundation for affective (feeling) professional, and social (doing), cognitive and psychosomatic (being) occupational well-being. Some BC-TAWs reported feeling subjugated, uncertain, and insecure, linked to struggles, silence, and individual coping strategies (e.g. writing), which resulted in perceived exclusion and alienation. Others reported feeling cared for, supported, connected, included, capable, and engaged, associated with adapting, fitting in, and even achieving mastery, thus ensuring a perceived inclusion and self-determination. Findings of this study are consistent with previous research while also offering new knowledge.