28th Nov 2007
Trends in the Workplace
Rand reports on several workplace trends in the United States:
- an increase in non-traditional staffing, which includes freelance and contract help as well as temporary employees;
- a decrease in traditional benefits packages for full-time employees;
- retraining and lifelong learning for older employees in the workplace and as they semi-retire;
- decentralization of the physical workplace
Resources
The Future at Work — Trends and Implications
The Department of Labor reports on a few related trends.
Work Trends in New Zealand just for the hell of it.
I’ve been a contract employee for 17 years. I’ve survived layoffs and terrible supervisors and many re-orgs. It helps that my husband’s job provides benefits. And the cost to me has been enormous if you consider that I would have received a lot of stock if I’d been a full-time employee. But for me it’s been a great trade-off for quality of life, working 15-35 hours a week depending on the current intensity of the work, being able to turn down a project for whatever reason. There have been awkward times- like when I leave work at 2, or don’t come in at all, or don’t get laid off- I wonder if there is resentment from full-time employees. Maybe not, maybe they have chosen to work full-time for the benefits, steady paycheck, compensation, career advancement, job satisfaction. I hope I’ll always be able to do contract work. The major threat to that is the trend of companies hiring through agencies, which forces contractors to charge less.
Yeah, agencies are definitely trying to be the middle man (and take half the money).
I’ve worked as a contractor for a publishing company that used the contractors to “audition” for the permanent positions. Of course, nothing is really permanent.