Career Stability and Insecurity: Evidence from Outsourced Jobs in Romania

Outsourcing companies play a significant role in reducing youth unemployment. However, many young university graduates find themselves in positions that are not aligned with their education or skills. In Romania’s business service sector, graduates face complex challenges; however, little is known about the precarious career paths they encounter in entry-level outsourced jobs. This qualitative research, based on a 2-year ethnographic case study, provides insights into the factors contributing to job precarity and describes its defining features. Through reflexive thematic analysis, this study examines this issue comprehensively and discusses the complicity of employees in managerial roles while questioning the validity of job promises made by outsourced organizations, particularly as entry-level customer support representatives (CSRs) employees experience precarity. These findings indicate that inadequate work environments lead to deskilling and an increase in emotional labor. This study reveals that financial incentives do not keep pace with the demands for deep- or surface-acting emotions in outsourced contexts. This underscores the importance of Arlie Russell Hochschild’s influential work by providing a thorough examination of emotional labor and its implications for CSRs. The study concludes with a call for urgent policy changes to strengthen the link between higher education, the labor market, and prospects for a decent career for university graduates.