Client, employer and employee: Mapping a complex triangulation

Many studies in the fields of Law, Sociology and Management point out the transformation of subordination in the employment relation. This transformation of subordination is often explained by the triangulation of the traditionally bilateral employment relation between employer and employees, due in large part to the intrusion of clients or their representatives in the operational and organizational conditions of work, without necessarily distinguishing between the various types of clients, nor between the reality and the rhetoric of the role and the weight of the client. The objective of this paper is 1) to propose a classification of the triangular situations between employer, employees and clients based on the power concept and 2) to analyse the impacts of clients on work conditions and employment relations.