Class guilt? Employers and their relationships with domestic workers in Poland

Personal relationships in paid domestic work can be problematic for several reasons. First of all, there is a stranger’s entry into the intimate life of a family. Secondly, private (domestic) and public (work) spheres overlap creating an ambivalent situation, which is volatile at times (Anderson 2000; Marchetti 2006; Mariti 2003; Miranda 2002; Momsen 1999; Yeoh and Huang 1999; Aubert 1956). Thirdly, the contemporary Polish context lacks any clear social definitions of the role of a domestic worker. This is due, among other things, to the employment gap under the People’s Republic of Poland (post-WWII to 1989) and during the early democratic transformation years (the 1990s), which were the years when other parts of Europe and the US also experienced a decrease in the popularity of paid domestic work (Coser 1973; Gregson and Lowe 1993). That is why for most employers today, relations with domestic workers are a sort of a social puzzle to be solved in everyday interactions. Some potential employers refrain from or stop employing a domestic worker altogether since solving this social puzzle turns out to be too problematic for them (Kordasiewicz 2011).