Moral work of precarious caregivers: The case of the Czech Republic during the COVID-19 pandemic

This article explores how family caregivers employed in precarious jobs reconstruct their moral selves in line with and in resistance to neoliberal ideals of responsibility and autonomy. The analysis of semi-structured interviews with parents and people providing care to a close relative, all working in precarious forms of employment and living in low-income households, shows that in a familialist and neoliberal context, precarious, nonstandard forms of employment and caregiving mutually reinforce each other. This relationship became even more visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study shows that precariously working caregivers perform different types of ‘moral work’ in their efforts to maintain dignity. By moral work, we understand the activity of attaching a moral value to a phenomenon, behaviour, person or attitude. Such moral work both adheres to and challenges the dominant neoliberal norms of responsibility and autonomy. The effort to fulfil the two non-compatible norms of ideal worker and perfect caregiver, and the moral work they perform to reclaim their moral selves through care, however, locks caregivers further into precarious employment and contributes to a deepening of their vulnerability.