All this activity and creative endeavour gives rise to a feeling of being in control. An informal job may be lost from one day to the next. Work that brought in a little money may suddenly stop being worthwhile. In a few hours a storm can destroy an entire potato crop. The result of several days' work may whisked away by a boss who may or may not have to do with organised crime.
Nothing is certain.
Everything is subject to chance, personal relations and undertakings that are informal and may be disregarded. Workers are no more likely to achieve a degree of stability in the informal rather than the formal sector. On the contrary, it induces lives of work, precariousness and instability. They do, however, have a head start on their Western counterparts in experimenting with labour flexibility. This is because the conditions for the development of a free market economy in Russia are particularly favourable.