The significance of occupations for chronically ill people returning to work
In Germany, occupations or vocational certificates are still regarded as the most important requirement for an individual to gain access to the labour market. This becomes evident, for example, in the assessment of vocational training schemes undergone by people with disabilities who, as a result of a permanent health impairment/disability, acquire a second professional qualification in order to (successfully) return to work in jobs that require social insurance contributions to be paid.
A systematic and comparative analysis of (double) qualification not only clarifies the (inter)individual significance of occupations for returning to work again, but also allows current discussions on the "erosion of the occupation principle" to be seen from a new angle.
Various horizons of the meaning of the word occupation when it comes to returning to work and the (occupational) biographical (re)structuring process that is associated with this step are discussed here, with two contrasting cases being used as examples. In particular the loss of a previous job as a result of illness, friction between the old and the new occupation and the change in the significance of the occupation that accompanies the (forced) radical change highlight various dimensions of occupational identity in the way people plan and live their lives.
The data originates from a mixed-method study on the return-to-work processes of people with disabilities who have completed 2-year retraining schemes at vocational retraining centres or with private agencies. The article focuses on reconstructing the profiles they developed during their return to the employment system, on relevant biographic, retraining-specific and structural conditions, on supporting and inhibiting action patterns and circumstances, and on the significance of occupations for the individuals in the conflict between illness, work and family.
