Job stigma bringing you down? New research says to ‘shake it off’
August 29, 2025
The stereotypical employee may be at a desk in front of a computer screen working a nine-to-five, but for many employees, the work day is filled with manual labor, hazardous environments and late-night shifts. Your local garbage collector, for example, is someone with a job that society might consider “dirty,” both literally and socially. For so-called “dirty jobs,” the environment may be stressful, the stigma can be hard to ignore, but the work needs to get done to keep society functioning. Scott Dust, PhD, professor in the management department at the University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business, worked with doctoral candidates Sodiq Babatunde and Ben Fagan to analyze the impact of stress and stigma on well-being in certain careers.