Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches, the authors explore questions that are central to our understanding of how the personal not only is shaped in and through work, but also contributes to social relations at work. Among the issues considered are: that emotional labour is increasingly central to the labour process of welfare work; the changing relationship between ageing, work and personal lives; the ways through which welfare-to-work policies seek to regulate personal lives. The book seeks to further our understanding of the complex links between social policy and work in its different forms as well as highlighting that the dominant discourses of work have developed around particular constructions of how personal lives should be ordered. It is one in an innovative series - Personal Lives and Social Policy - published by The Open University and The Policy Press. The series comprises four interactive texts that successfully weave together new and challenging questions about the study of social policy with a range of teaching resources to support the development of the reader's own knowledge and understanding.