Depoliticizing the firm: Revisiting employability as a strategy and a narrative for high-skilled and skilled workers in an eastern european city

Abstract

Our main aim is to unpack the notion of employability as a narrative and as a strategy by contextualising it in an Eastern European setting and by scrutinizing how it is defined and experienced by two different categories of employees: high-skilled and skilled workers. We look at the case of Cluj, a mid-size Romanian town fast developing into an IT hub and a centre of rein-dustrialization. Drawing on qualitative interviews with employees in the IT and HR sectors, and in medium-sized factories, we argue that personal development and gaining expertise are a successful employability strategy for the high-skilled, but make the skilled workers more vulnerable and at risk of becoming redundant. We argue that the employability discourse draws new lines of divi-sions between employees. By shifting the lens away from the organization and towards the individual worker’s responsibility, the employability discourse de-politicizes the relationship between the employee and the employer.