Career stability and insecurity: evidence from outsourced jobs in Romania

Abstract & methodology The issue of precarious careers among university graduates has become increasingly prevalent because of the rapidly evolving dynamics of the work world (World Economic Forum, 2023; Tomlinson, 2013). While it is well established that outsourcing companies have played a significant role in mitigating unemployment rates among youth, it is equally noteworthy that many of these young university graduates are often employed in positions that do not align with their level of education or expertise (European Commission, 2023; Isirabahenda, 2022). Despite complex issues, young university graduates in the Romania business service sector are exposed to (Zamfil et al., 2020), and little is known about the precarious career paths they experience in their entry-level outsourced jobs. Based on a two-year ethnographic case study, this qualitative study offers insights into the factors that contribute to precarity and describes its defining features. Drawing on critical realism and reflexive thematic analysis, this study comprehensively examines this phenomenon. The study reveals the techniques that outsourced managers employ to marginalize entry-level workers serving as customer support representatives, discusses the complicity of managerial employees in a critical manner, while simultaneously questioning the validity of job promises made by outsourced organizations as CSRs experience precarity. The study’s findings indicate that an inadequate work environment entail deskilling and a significant increase in emotional labor. This research underscores the importance of Arlie Russell Hochschild’s influential work, “The Managed Heart,” (Hochschild, 1983), by offering a comprehensive examination of emotional labor and its implications for customer service representatives (CSRs) who perform it, and shows how the financial element has not kept pace despite many efforts to display outsourceddesired deep- or surface-acting emotions. In addition, given CSRs’ low bargaining power, limited job mobility, and ineffective talent management, their roles are rendered more precarious. The study concludes with recommendations to enhance the link between higher education, the labor market, and a decent career for university graduates.