Precarious Employees in Service Economy: Between Exploitation and New Market Compromises

In this work, the author makes an attempt to show that home cleaning, which would seem to be a simple job that does not require special skills, in fact is a difficult task with a great amount of related risks. The object of the research is women, who provide services in keeping apartments and houses independently in Moscow and the Moscow region. The ground for this choice is the combination of such factors in the activities of housekeepers as the lack of an employment contract, the non-permanent employment, the specific public perception of people, who clean up after others, and the need to intrude into the zone of the employer's private life (both territorial and emotional). As a result, such conditions, in which a woman faces a large number of risks that she has to cope with without institutional support, are created. With the help of a qualitative data collection method, specifically a semi-structured leitmotiv interview, I have made an attempt to understand the motives and the work activity specifics of the studied women. While structuring the data by means of the theory ascent method, I have managed to find out what risks housekeepers face during their work activities and whether the resulting insecurity is a conscious choice, or a result of exploitation because of a vulnerable structural position. According to the data analysis, several types of exploitation, which housekeepers face or risk to face during the work process, among them: economic, socio-psychological, sexual and self-exploitation, have been identified and studied in detail. On the strength of this, it becomes possible to claim about their unprotected position in the society and entry into the precarious layer of the population. It is necessary to note that the most urgent problem is the risk of sexual exploitation; it is noted by all informants and may be the main object of study in new researches on the topic. With the help of the “Theory of Tragic Choice”, the author has made an attempt to understand whether the decision to provide cleaning services independently is conscious or it is made under the influence of external factors, forcing the woman to accept the “best” option among the “worst”. The results of the study have shown that due to the low social prestige of this occupation and the danger of the above described risks, the decision to become a housekeeper is tragic for many women and causes a feeling of status inconsistency. Such factors as migration, divorce, the need of looking after a child, negative experience in hiring and others are found among the stimulating external ones. Despite the opportunity to leave the informal sector of the economy and register themselves officially as self-employed citizens, housekeepers prefer not to do this. They explain this decision with distrust to the government, the lack of real benefits from registration, or the hope that cleaning is temporary for them and soon they will be able to change it for another job.