Care Workers' Risk Work: How Nannies Manage Invisible Threats in Employers' Homes

Extending prior HCI and CSCW research on the invisible challenges domestic care workers face, we examine how childcare workers, particularly nannies, experience and manage workplace risks. Drawing on interviews with 21 nannies, we identified three interrelated risks—physical, emotional, and financial—arising from structural and relational constraints in employers’ homes. Through the lens of risk work, we show how these multi-dimensional constraints create tensions that hinder nannies’ direct risk mitigation strategies. This often compels them to prioritize indirect risk management to avoid tensions, leaving risks themselves unresolved. Our study highlights the need for future research and sociotechnical interventions that address domestic childcare workers’ unique constraints, identify their coping strategies through a risk work lens, and illuminate the risks obscured by indirect coping. We further call for recognizing the limitations of both personal tools and employer-centered home technologies, and propose worker-centered, reciprocal interventions as well as virtual and psychological separation in the workplace.