“Sticky,Yet Precarious”—An Ethnographic Insight of F&B Workers in Singapore

Abstract

This article examines the paradoxical nature of food and beverage (F&B) service work in Singapore, which is both precarious and “sticky.” Precarious work is characterized by low wages, long hours, limited upward mobility, and job insecurity, while stickiness refers to the factors that bind workers to these roles despite the challenges. Drawing on six months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews across various F&B establishments, this study investigates why workers remain in jobs stigmatized as undesirable. The analysis reveals that while financial necessity, social ties, and the integration of work with personal identity create a sense of attachment, unpaid tasks outside shifts—reinforced by a false sense of “family” and “responsibility”—further tether workers to their roles. This article explores how these dynamics evolve across workers’ life courses and contribute to broader discussions on precarious labor, work identity, and job embeddedness, revealing how such roles can simultaneously be limiting yet meaningful.