168
CHAPTER 10
SOCIALIZATION
activities constitute a rehearsal for the future in that they allow an individual to begin to identify with a work role and learn some
thing about its expectations and rewards. Finally, the individual finds employment and begins to learn the reality of the job—all of its disadvantages and advantages. This final stage can involve some difficult moments because
workers generally find that no job is all that it's cracked up to be. New nurses may enter the hospital ward wanting to spend their time comforting the sick and injured but find they must spend most of their time doing administrative work and overseeing the work of nurses' aides. New college professors may expect that they will educate young adults to take their places in the world and then find that no one seems to be listening to their lectures. Factory workers may discover that the work is tedious beyond anything they could have imagined. And so it goes. Individuals have to find ways of coping with the reality of their jobs; gener ally, they learn these from more experienced co-workers. So, part of the on-the-job socialization involves not merely learning to do the work but learning to cope with doing the work.
Sociologists have found that people tend to become heavily invested in their work. Work is not simply another role to play in the social structure; work may become one's master status. Many
adults, for example, when asked to explain who they are, preface all their other remarks by noting their occupation. Here's how one observer put it: Work is our calling card to the rest of the world. Men and women
alike use their work to identify themselves to others. Picture yourself silently circulating at a cocktail party and eavesdropping on how people introduce themselves to one another. I guarantee that you are not going to hear anything like the following: "Hi, I'm Bob, and I'm an Episcopalian"; "Hello, I'm Patty. I'm active in the Democratic Party"; "Howdy, I'm Susan, and I support Habitat for Humanity." It just doesn't happen that way. Workers describe themselves first by "name, rank and serial number," that is, by name, occupation, and title. It is only later, if at all, that they might divulge what they like, what they value, and how their lives are structured outside of work. (Gini 2000, 9)
Resocialization and Total Institutions Most socialization processes take place in the context of everyday life—in our families and peer groups, in school, in the workplace. But in some cases, socialization takes place in what sociologists call total institutions. This phrase was coined by Erving Goffman, who studied such places as mental hospitals and prisons. He found that in these kinds of organizations, an intense socialization