Teenage work: the experience of a regular occupation

Abstract

The present text aims to discuss issues referring to the experience of regular and monitored work, directed to teenagers from low income backgrounds. It addresses issues which emerged from a doctorate research on the participation of teenagers from low classes in a program withheld by the Empresa de Correios e Telégrafos (Mail Services) of São Paulo, named The Assisted Teenager. In this article, important issues are highlighted, such as: the association between poverty and marginalization in the use of the term minor; the representations that level youth, adolescence and poverty categories and justifies intervention practices; the work experience at the company and the moralizing normalizations; and the notions of employability defined by the company. Furthermore, we point out the condition of a regular entry into the labor market, taking into account that not only in Brazil, but in other countries as well, precarious jobs and unemployment tend to be associated to teenagers from low income backgrounds, in national as international researches that study this thematic and social actor.