This article uses extensive ethnographic methods to explore the lived reality of a Danish workfare programme. The programme requires social assistance recipients to perform manual labour for their benefits at municipal work sites. The contrast between the political rhetoric that justifies the workfare programme and the lived reality of it is striking. While the programme is justified as a means to put the passive unemployed to work, there is a norm of working less, not more at the site. The participants spend most of their time waiting or conducting seemingly meaningless work assignments. However, over time, the majority of the participants begin to embrace this modus operandi at the site. This article answers this apparent paradox by turning to concepts from the anthropology of industrial work. Such concepts allow us to analyse how camaraderie exists amongst participants as well as work supervisors at the site. Particularly, the camaraderie is based on group solidarity, an informal regulation of work efficiency and an alternative system of value. Hereby, the article adds to previous findings on the ‘lived experiences’ of welfare recipients.

本文使用广泛的民族志方法来探索丹麦工作福利计划的现实情况。该计划要求社会援助接受者在市政工作场所从事体力劳动以获得福利。为工作福利计划辩护的政治言论与其生活现实之间的对比是惊人的。虽然该计划被证明是让被动失业者工作的一种手段，但在现场工作更少而不是更多是一种规范。参与者大部分时间都在等待或执行看似毫无意义的工作任务。然而，随着时间的推移，大多数参与者开始接受现场的这种作案手法。本文通过转向工业工作人类学的概念来回答这个明显的悖论。这些概念使我们能够分析参与者和现场工作主管之间如何存在友情。特别是，友情建立在团队团结、工作效率的非正式规定和替代价值体系的基础上。特此，这篇文章补充了之前关于福利接受者“生活经历”的调查结果。