Workplace conditions for shopping mall sales employees and their work experience: A sociological research study in Izmir

In this study, workplace conditions of sales employees who work at different shopping malls across the city Izmir and these employees' work experience are put under the lens. The main research questions here are 'How do the workplace conditions in shopping malls look?' and 'How do shopping mall employees perceive and experience workplace conditions?'. Finding answers to these questions is meaningful as it would let researchers understand the consequences of working at shopping malls in Turkey that provide many recreational and professional opportunities to their visitors and employees. In the research stage of the study, the researcher utilized mixed methodology. Questionnaires including a scale as a quantitative instrument and semi-structured in-depth interviews as a qualitative instrument have been used. The sampling techniques have been cluster and snowball sampling. The field research has been conducted in 8 shopping malls, and the final questionnaire has been filled out with 389 sales employees at 7 shopping malls. Face-to-face interviews have been conducted with 35 sales employees. The fact that neoliberal economic policies are systematically exploiting employees by means of deunionization, flexibilization, precarity and lawlessness has been supported by the findings of this work in terms of wage, working hours, social security and other employment rights. The research findings show that the most important disadvantage that sales employees experience seems to be flexible work. Physical/ergonomic difficulties, low salary levels and emotional labor are perceived as other critical disadvantages related to work. Especially, emotional labor has been found to be a critical factor that degrades job satisfaction and perception of social status related to occupation. Aesthetic labor—defying expectations—is not perceived by a majority of employees as a negative phenomenon. The satisfaction of the employee appears to be affected by age, sector and income. It has also been found that there is a meaningful difference between female and male employees in terms of income and of opportunities to reach managerial positions, showing strong sexist work practices in shopping malls. Sales employees, in general, seem to be in sync with the consumptional dynamics required by the consumer society.