‘We are always with the guillotine on our neck’: precariousness and violence in the teaching work

Abstract

The current political-economic scenario has generated changes in public higher education, resulting in precarious conditions and labor relations. This materializes in the universities, in the figure of substitute teachers, subjected to a temporary bond. This article analyzes the nature of the relationship between the precariousness, the occurrence of violence at work and its subjective repercussions. The data presented herein are from a qualitative research of a master's thesis, which used the theoretical-methodological framework of the Work Psychodynamics, in articulation with Historical-Dialectical Materialism. Interviews were carried out with 28 teachers, 3 managers and 14 collective sessions, with 6 teachers. It was considered compliance with Resolution 510/16 of the National Health Council on ethics in research in social and human sciences. Psychological violence was observed in the way work was organized and in established relationships, which caused suffering and could impair the health of teachers, although the existence of pathologies was not characterized. Nevertheless, the pleasure at work is experienced by the sense that it assumes for the teachers and the society, by the degree of autonomy made possible in the exercise of the attributions and also by the recognition from the students.