top of page

Precarious Work in my Life

Every week when I was younger my Dad and I would go to the library and sign out an entire stack of movies for us to watch as a family. It was exciting because you never knew what you were going to get. We went to a number of libraries, but the best was not the closest, rather it was one that was out of our way. The reason we visited this library in particular was because of an employee who worked there named Jorge Guevara . He always remembered us and we’d all chat about movies. He would give us suggestions and let us know if the latest movies had arrived. I didn't know much about him until I found a video documentary by the Toronto Public Library about precarious work. To my surprise Jorge was one of the people being interviewed. I learned that he had been a library assistant for 11 years and had aspirations of starting a family. However, eventhough he had been working at the library for 11 years he was still considered part-time, and was only guarunteed 17 hours a week. 

 

Taking a step back from the video itself and analyzing it as a media representation of precarious work, we see how it represents society’s blindness to the issue. The video itself has just over 2,000 views, which makes it far less relevant in terms of media representation than videos of cats and people failing at various things. In addition, the precarious work’s invisibility in the media’s eye is further solidified by the fact that I knew nothing about it before this project began. This is because as a society, we perceive precarious work as something displaced, and distant from ourselves. We think it only affects minorities. We think it only affects minimum wage positions. We think it does not affect us, and will not affect us. However, the reality is the complete opposite. Precarious work is a growing norm in society today. It does affect minorities. It does affect minimum wage positions. It does and will affect us all, whether that experience is direct or even through our favourite librarian. Precarious work is here to stay, and it is not checking out.

 

 

 

bottom of page