Антропологичен поглед към трудовия свят в съвременна Естония
Anthropological View to the Realm of Labour in Contemporary Estonia

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the results of field research I carried out in September 2008 in three towns of Estonia. The work, whose objective was the study of some aspects of the modern everyday working life, consisted in taking semi-structured interviews from petty entrepreneurs and employees in small companies, as well as short observations at the place of work and the working environment. In view of the actual possibilities of research work, I set myself the objective of finding my bearings in the realm of labor of post-Soviet Estonia of the last 18 years and of getting first-hand impressions of the everyday working life in small enterprises. As an ethnologist I take an interest in the subjective side of work, i.e. the focus of my attention has been directed at individual employees, their interpretations of the everyday working life and their behavior at the place of work. For the time at my disposal I succeeded in taking eight interviews from people, working in six economic organizations. In my anthropological work I was constantly making parallels with the economic, social and cultural situation in Bulgaria. Most of the people in Estonia, employed by small enterprises, had a positive attitude to principles and norms in work, which were comparatively alien to the socialist realm of labor, but were characteristic of the West-European societies and they had mastered them to a high extent. Such are, for instance, stringent labor discipline, rational way of thinking and action, readiness for attainment of maximum results of labor. In Bulgaria these principles are still in the sphere of wishful thinking, though some positive changes have already been observed along the way to their mastering. I have established the following cultural characteristics of the everyday working life in small enterprises in Estonia: considerable formalization of interrelations, a high level of social trust, showing of personal trust depending on the professional results, decreased use of personal social networks in the realm of labour; mostly negative attitude to informal work. They testify to the wish and efforts of people in Estonia to come closer to the West-European models in everyday working life. These characteristics have also been the result of the striving to draw away from the socialist past faster, particularly from the realm of labor during that time.

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