Abstract EN:

Many of the employees of institutes of surveys are under fixed term contracts but contract instability doesn't means employment instability. On the contrary, logics tending to the stabilization. Implicit and asymmetrical contracts are set up between the temporary contractors and their managers. For temporary employees, the best way to strengthen their position is to acquire various competences in order to increase their employability. Although stressful and demanding, because it implies a permanent investment the status of the temporary employee makes it possible to control one's commitments and to set up priorities between the different times of everyday life. Nevertheless, depending on the assets and the social paths of the agents, we can distinguish different degrees of adjustments, and social uses of this status that are more or less successful because the very low involvement into the pollster's work and the management of such a career imply specific qualities.