An insight into the experiences of Lapland’s seasonal workers

The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of Lapland’s seasonal employees. The study has three goals. First is to define the key characteristics of seasonal employment. The second research question is to find factors of both motivation and demotivation of the seasonal workers. The third objective of this study is to find out how work wellbeing is perceived in seasonal employment. First the thesis focuses on providing a theoretical framework to the study. This includes three chapters, each reflecting one of the research questions. The order of these chapters is the same as in which the research problems are presented. The purpose of the theoretical framweork is to provide an understanding of the subjects and to give reasons for the topic of the study. This is followed by the empirical part of study where the used research methods and working methods are presented alongside with the results. The chosen research method is qualitative study and the material was collected by conducting three (3) in-depth interviews arranged face-to-face and through Skype. All the interviews were recorded and later translated into written format in order to be able to analyse them better. The results show that the employees find the seasonal nature of the work as a positive thing, even though at times it makes planning life ahead challenging. Seasonal workers are often offered poor contracts with minimal amount of promised hours per roster, and they feel they need to take a leap of faith signing the contracts. The surroundings of the workplace and opportunities to pursue their own hobbies are seen as the most motivating factors of the employment. The interviewees feel they could return for another season of work, although two of them would not return to the same job. Only one of the interviewees had taken the employment not knowing anyone in the destination, suggesting that most seasonal employees go to Lapland with their friends or have made friends during the previous seasons. The results of the aspects of wellbeing in this study are varied. The results show the level of training received at the beginning of the employment is low and at times the appreciation of the workers to be unsatisfactory. The results also suggest there to be difference in the valuation of new employees and those returning for another season. Social support was named as an important factor of the seasonal employees’ wellbeing and as a source of strenght. A suggestion for further research could include deeper analysis of the seasonal employees’ coping methods in Lapland. As this thesis focuses more on charting the key features of the seasonal work, the workers’ motivational factors and the perception of work wellbeing, the aspect of the employees’ true coping methods was not presented