Conceptions and norms about directness in service relations: domestic workers and customers

This article analyses service relations between domestic workers and customers; specifically, workers’ conceptions and norms about directives. While previous studies have focused on contexts where asymmetries of power are great, thus resulting in equally asymmetrical forms of interactions, this article reports from a study of a context where asymmetries are smaller. Empirical data consist of 20 semi-structured interviews with formally employed domestic workers in Sweden. This article describes and analyses workers’ experience with customer directives, their norms about how customers should express directives, and how they teach customers their role. Thus, in contrast to previous studies of paid domestic workers, this study shows that smaller asymmetries of power result in less asymmetrical interactions and how domestic workers even execute power over customers.