This article aims to present the results of a qualitative study chiefly intended to critically analyze the suffering anchored on precarious cleaning work. Observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 outsourced cleaning workers at shopping malls both in Brazil and in Canada. The analysis of the interviews sought the regularity of recurring subjects; it also grouped elements in order to form the analysis' thematic nuclei, and built indications to provide theoretical consistence based on the interpretation of the systematized findings. The study showed that the disgust and humiliation of cleaning workers while dealing with the garbage and dirt left by clients in food courts and toilets are a cause of suffering and require the performance of Emotional Work. In both countries, we were able find three thematic nuclei of analysis that interrelate in the day-to-day of outsourced cleaning work in shopping malls: disgust, humiliation, and control.
Outsourcing; Disgust; Humiliation; Emotional Work; Shopping mall