The Spanish home care workers between job vulnerability and happiness in times of crisis

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-11-2021-0433
• Published date: 08 March 2022
• Date: 08 March 2022
• Pages: 618-630
• Subject Matter: Strategy,Corporate governance
• Author: Mª Ángeles Minguela-Recover,Consuelo López-Fernández,José Antonio López-Sánchez,Juan Manuel Picardo-García

The Spanish home care workers

between job vulnerability and

happiness in times of crisis

M

a

Ángeles Minguela-Recover, Consuelo L

opez-Fern

andez, José Antonio L

opez-S

anchez

and Juan Manuel Picardo-García

(Information about the

authors can be found at the

end of this article.)

Abstract

Purpose –This study aims to analyzethe well-being experience of home care workers regardlessof the

service management model. It also aims to analyze their emotional experiences of their activity and

workingconditions.

Design/methodology/approach –This study, using a mixed qualitative and quantitative analysis,

allows a combined analysis for a better understanding of the well-being experience of home care

workers.

Findings –Home care workers experience intrinsicjob satisfaction and demonstrate this with positive

emotionsregardless of their work situation.

Practical implications –Caring for the carer should be a business value. Measures oriented toward

workers’ comfort generategreater happiness and commitment, which is automatically transferredto the

qualityof the care provided and reduces the psychosocialrisks of their professional activity.

Social implications –Visualizingthe social reality of an essential professionthrough research generates

verifiableevidence that will help to improve the workingconditions of home care workers in Spain.

Originality/value –To the best of the authors’ knowledge,this pioneering study in Spain introduces a

greaterunderstanding of how home care workersin Spain experience their work reality.

Keywords Gender, Happiness, Elderly people, Dependent people, Home care worker,

Occupational vulnerability

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

The first cases of COVID-19 appearedin Wuhan (People’s Republic of China) in December

2019. The virus quickly spreads to all countries of the world. On March 11, 2020, the World

Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. At the time of this writing (October

2021), the disease is stillspreading worldwide, 17 months after its declaration.

In this context, we find ourselves with an increasingly aging population. In the specific case

of Spain, the latest data available from the National Institute of Statistics as of January 1,

2021, shows a population where people over 65years represent 19.6% while those over

80 years of age are 6.0% of the total population (INE, 2021). Since the global pandemic by

COVID-19 began, this population grouphas been highly vulnerable, counting deaths by the

thousands. Data from the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency (SAAD) report

excessive mortality in people in a situation of legally recognized dependency. Between

March 2020 and October 2021, 382,805 people died with a dependency request, with

excess mortality of 65,795 people registered with the SAAD, representing 17.2%. The

excess deaths are 79.1% being 80 and older, followed by 16.3% of people aged 65 to

Received 31 May 2021

Revised 28 December 2021

Accepted 14 January 2022

©M

a

A

´ngeles Minguela-Recover,

Consuelo L

opez Fern

andez,

Jose

´Antonio L

opezS

anchez and

Juan Manuel Picardo Garcı

´a.

Published by Emerald Publishing

Limited. This is published under

the Creative Commons Attribution

(CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may

reproduce, distribute, translate

and create derivative works of this

article(for both commercial and

non-commercial purposes),

subject to full attribution to the

original publication and authors.

The full terms of this licence may

be seen at http://creativecommons.

org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

This work has been co-financed

by the European Union under

the 2014-2020 ERDF

Operational Programme and by

the Department of Economic

Transformation, Industry,

Knowledge, and Universities of

the Regional Government of

Andalusia. Project reference :

FEDER-UCA18-105828.

PAGE 618 jCORPORATE GOVERNANCE jVOL. 22 NO. 3 2022, pp. 618-630, Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1472-0701 DOI 10.1108/CG-11-2021-0433