Occupational Myths

Myths abound in occupational life, but the topic of myths has generally been neglected by occupational sociologists. This paper attempts to rectify the omission. It is contended that we find myths at points of occupational stress and the myths are used by workers to cope with the stress. Six broad occupational types are discussed in this paper: professions, semi-professions, managers, white collar clerical workers, low status employees and deviant occupations. For each type, I describe major points of stress and the myths that have developed in an effort to cope with the conflict. It is hoped that this type of analysis will be extended to other points of stress as well as to additional types of occupations.