Open Ended Interview Questions.

Work Biography

Where are you working at the moment? (If not working tell me about your last job?)


How long have you been there? (If not working tell me why you left?)


Do you think you'll be staying there for much longer?

Where were the last three places you worked prior to this?


Why did you leave employment in these places?


Do you see yourself as following any particular career path at the moment?

Why are you working in this particular job?

What do you use your income for?

In the workplace.

What sort of atmosphere have you experienced in workplaces?

What's sort of dynamic have you experienced between the workers?

Do you share much in common with the others outside of work?


Is there a big divide between management and staff in your workplace?

Have you ever engaged in any serious misbehaviour within the workplace such as stealing company property or dossing off when you should be working?

Is there much work place humour? What sort of forms does it take?

Do you find work stressful or are there any aspects that you really don't like?

Have you or your colleagues developed any coping strategies to deal with these sort of issues?

Would you talk about problems in work outside of work?

The relationship to unions

Have you ever had problems in work with employesr?

Did you do anything to solve them?

What institutions if any would you appeal to in order to solve any situations that may arise in work?

What sort of contact have you had with trade unions?

Is there anything specifically in your work to encourage or discourage trade union activity?

Are your parents in a union?

The social movement

When did you first become aware of contemporary social movement activity?

When did you make the leap to actually becoming politically active?


What are you active on at the moment?

What are your political objectives?


In your organising how do you discuss and plan activity? Can you expand a little on how these structures work?

Do you have personal relationships with people you are politically active with outside of that activity?


Do you share a common culture with each other?

Do you see the idea of class relating to your politics?

Relationship to unions

What's your honest opinion of contemporary unions?

What sort of relationship does your political movement have with unions?

Does it do anything to promote unionisation?

Have you ever worked on union related issues outside of your workplace?

Do you think you share any common goals with traditional trade unionism?

Do your political objectives go beyond the demands of traditional trade unionism?


Could your experiences in political activity contribute to workplace organisation?