'I didn't feel like I was alone anymore': evaluating self-organised employee coping practices conducted via Facebook

The long-term fracturing of the labour movement has led to increased attention to employee coping practices under new management practices and labour processes. However, the extant literature caters little for the recent rise of employees taking to social networking sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, to find ways to cope with the pressures of contemporary employment. In order to explore the self-organised coping qualities of SNSs, interviews were conducted with a range of front-line workers, employed by a large anti-trade union USA retailer, who follow and contribute to a self-organised Facebook page set up as a place for fellow employees to deal with collective employment-related problems. The main findings suggest SNSs further the possibilities for self-organised coping in a range of ways. The findings also allowed proposed developments to Korczynski's (2003) concept of communities of coping. Further research is recommended and advice provided on the future direction of such research.