The indeterminacy of time and tasks: negotiating practices among live-in farm and domestic workers

This article aims to bridge the debate on the overlap of spaces and times of production and reproduction, as developed in studies on dormitory-labour regimes, with the well-established literature on domestic and agricultural work, which has extensively analyzed the live-in arrangement. Drawing on the authors’ long-term qualitative and ethnographic research among migrant workers in the Italian domestic sector (Veneto) and agricultural sector (Sicily), the article examines the specific dynamics of residing in the employer’s home or on their property. In such contexts, where daily proximity is a defining feature, workers face high levels of control over both their working and non-working time, while becoming entangled in complex dynamics of familiarity, closeness, and moral obligations. Our analysis shows that these living and working conditions significantly amplify employers’ capacity for labour extraction through two key mechanisms: time indeterminacy – namely the blurring and vagueness of working hours – and task indeterminacy – that is, the lack of clear delineation in job responsibilities, deeply rooted in the legacy of servitude and shaped by gender and racial hierarchies. Workers’ reactions to this indeterminacy are rare and constrained by their position in the live-in arrangement; nonetheless, in some cases they attempt to monetize extra work or, when possible, exercise their mobility power.