In Juggling Food and Feelings Mary Gatta applies social and structuration theory to the workplace as she analyzes the emotional challenges faced by restaurant workers. Gatta utilizes extensive participatory observation of, and interviews with, restaurant managers and servers to explore how workers deal with emotional experience in the workplace. Positing that we ordinarily maintain an emotional balance, Gatta theorizes that our ability to cope with emotional disturbances in the workplace depends on situated rebalancing "scripts" used to control feelings. Contributing to the sociology of...

Not Just Getting By chronicles groundbreaking thinking and research on new and innovative workforce development initiatives to create flexible and collaborative programs and policies. Author Mary Gatta builds on extensive interviews and focus groups with 128 women enrolled in a U.S. Department of Labor pilot program in New Jersey focusing on how they attain education through online courses while working, raising their children, and dealing with the many demands on their lives.