Over at the Harvard Business Review there's speculation that the paradigm of people working full-time for a single employer has outlived its usefulness:
Our vision is straightforward: most people will become independent contractors who have the flexibility to work part-time for several organizations at the same time, or do a series of short full-time gigs with different companies over the course of a year. Companies will maintain only a minimal full-time staff of executives, key managers, and professionals and bring in the rest of the required talent as needed in a targeted, flexible, and deliberate way.
There are two reasons such a flexible work system is now plausible. The first is societal values. Work-life balance and family-friendly scheduling are much more important to today's workers, and companies are increasingly willing to accommodate them. The second is technology. Advances in the last five years have greatly improved the ease with which people can work and collaborate remotely and companies and contract workers can find each other.
The opinion piece goes on to list how workers, employers and society in general will benefit from this shift. What seems to be missing is speculation on the down sides, both to employers and contractors. Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:16PM
Outsource to a body shop. They'll tell you what you want to hear: they work for cheaper, their staff are self-motivated, self-taught go-getters, not like the fat, greedy, lazy, complacent dead-beats you've had on your own staff.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by LowSpeedHighDrag on Sunday September 06 2015, @01:35PM
Yeah I've heard that one before. I could say 'Fool me once...' but it didn't even fool me the first time.
We do hire contractors where I work but mostly because we can both hire and fire them easily in the early stages of employment. Evaluating how they will work out is nearly impossible until they are actually working for you. If someone works out they are almost always hired on full time. IOW: It's tough to find good help these days. ;)