“The Career Does Not Love You Back”: Impacts of Contingent Employment on Workers, Cultural Heritage Institutions, and the Archival Profession

ABSTRACT This article reports the findings of the 2021 New England Archivists Contingent Employment Study, which comprised a survey with eighty-three valid responses, fifteen interviews, and analysis of 250 job postings. The study found that although contingent employment often provides useful professional experience and mentorship, it can negatively impact archival workers due to low pay, inadequate benefits, and short term lengths. Additionally, many experience low morale and isolation due to their contingent status, and the inherent instability of contingent employment causes some to feel that they have little control over their careers and personal lives. Cross-tabulation analysis revealed that new professionals have more contingent positions than their mid-career and late-career counterparts, suggesting that contingent jobs and the challenges of protracted contingent employment have become more prominent over time. Participants were concerned that relying on contingent employment negatively affected their employers, particularly in terms of morale, high rates of staff turnover, institutional memory, and unstable funding. The study also documented perceived effects on the broader archival field, including causing burnout and attrition of archival workers; hampering efforts to recruit and retain a diverse profession; devaluing archival education and labor; perpetuating the reliance on unsustainable funding models; and preventing the development of robust, innovative, and inclusive professional communities. Using the study data and other research in the professional literature, the authors argue that there is an urgent need to address the issues raised in the study by improving working conditions for contingent workers and broadly reassessing the profession's relationship with contingent labor.