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from the you-can-start-tomorrow...-and-finish-next-friday dept.
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: 3, Informative) by mrsam on Sunday September 06 2015, @02:33PM
That's strange. I've been a contract consultant, in IT, for over twenty years. Somehow I have group health insurance, and a retirement plan. How did that happen?
You know, I think the main difference between myself, and many others, is that I don't spend a lot of time brooding how I've been "fucked" over by all the eeeeevil American corporations. Rather, I spend all this time figuring out how to make those corporations fight over the rights to my skills, at maximum, confiscatory, consulting fees.
One life's lesson I've learned is that a lot depends on one's own attitude. If one constantly works around complaining, and feeling sorry for oneself, bemoaning how much of a victim they are, than that's exactly what they'll always be. A victim.
But, if one believes in himself, that his own skills and capabilities, and that he or she is a winner, then that's what they'll always be. A winner. You'd be surprised to learn how much a winning attitude counts for.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @02:56PM
That's strange. I've been a contract consultant, in IT, for over twenty years. Somehow I have group health insurance, and a retirement plan. How did that happen?
Me too. Made a couple of million and now I only work when I find something interesting.
And what I've learned over my 25 years in the business is that pure luck is the single largest component of my success. Not everyone, not even a majority of us, will find themselves with the right set of circumstances to grab the golden ring. Sure, it takes skill and lots of effort to hold onto the golden ring, but all of that is for naught if you aren't within arm's reach anyway.
So yeah, we are winners. Lottery winners.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @10:51PM
It's very rare to find someone with such a considered understanding of the world. So many feel that those who haven't got high paying gigs and lots of money didn't work hard enough, even if the unlucky worked harder than the rest. The "just world" view that one has worked hard enough is simply a self-justification for feeling entitled.
I guess this is my way of saying "If I had mod points...."
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 07 2015, @02:39AM
Some of the many parts of my pure luck, as someone doing well and with plenty of time to earn more:
- Being born to highly educated parents, including a programmer, which meant I entered college with 6-ish years of practice that a lot of my classmates didn't have.
- Being born into a family that could afford to pay for my college education, leaving my expenses about 15% lower than those who had to take on loans, which increased as I was able to buy a car without having to take on as much credit.
- Being white. That helps a lot with things that have little to do with money, like not getting shot by cops.
- Being male, which meant that when I worked as an employee I got paid approximately 20-30% more, and wasn't constantly harassed by coworkers.
- Not dying or even being injured significantly in a car accident when I easily could have several times (1 when I was young, once spinning out on a highway in bad weather).
- Living only in homes without lead paint or industrial toxins that would have poisoned me.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @06:02AM
It takes a while to figure out how to contract effectively. Of course people are going to grumble until they get their sea legs. You expect them to be happy while tripping and flopping on the deck? Grumbling is venting, and people feel better after venting. Workers of the world, vent!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 06 2015, @02:56PM
Times are changing. WIth the right combination of education, skills, perseverance, and luck, people can be very successful. Of course, the "good old boy" network can be invaluable, if you happen to be a "good old boy". Most refer to that as "networking".
All the same, you cannot remain unaware that corporations are busily importing H1B's to fill positions that are artfully defined to exclude any native-born American. The pool of highly successful American consultants is going to shrink over time, wages will decrease, and success will be ever more elusive.
I congratulate you on your own success. But, how about your sons and daughters (presuming you have children)? Are you happy to see them competing in the dog-eat-dog world that is being built for them? Give it another couple decades, and see how your grandchildren are faring.
(Score: 1) by mrsam on Sunday September 06 2015, @04:20PM
Well, funny that you mention it, but the first time I've heard of H1Bs was from my very first pimp, some 20-years ago. He was a very nice gentleman, and one day he was telling me all about these Indian job shops have been packing 6-7 H1Bs into a company-owned house, and then renting them out for rates that undercut his, but still manage to put a nice wad of cash into their pocket, before paying the peanuts to the H1Bs.
And, that's been pretty much it. I've been hearing about these H1Bs ever since then. But that's all I can say, I've just been hearing about them. Yes, I've a lot about them. But that's all I did, I just heard about them. Don't ever recall losing a job to them, or even competing with any of them, for my gigs.
Strange.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @05:41PM
> But, how about your sons and daughters
Bad argument. The single greatest predictor of a child's financial success in life is the wealth of their parents. His kids will do just fine.
(Score: 1) by mrsam on Sunday September 06 2015, @07:02PM
Sorry to bust your left-wing talking points, but 35 years ago my family arrived to the fruited plain with absolutely nothing in their pocket.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @07:20PM
> Sorry to bust your left-wing talking points, but 35 years ago my family arrived to the fruited plain with absolutely nothing in their pocket.
Anecdotes are not data. I said predictor not guarantee.
Furthermore, that correlation has only gotten stronger over the last 35 years upward mobility has stagnated. [aei.org]
It is revealing you that immediately jumped on the "left-wing talking points" bandwagon. It is always disappointing when someone lives down to a stereotype.
(Score: 1) by mrsam on Sunday September 06 2015, @11:19PM
It might actually be a good idea to read the cited American Enteprise Institute report. It does not say what you think it does. It's focused on analysing the results of US's massive welfare spending and redistribution of wealth, and whether it does anything to encourage upward economic mobility. Quoting the meat of the report:
"The United States spends nearly $800 billion every year on antipoverty programs, yet upward mobility is not improving. A child born into a low-income family is likely to stay low income. Federal policies are needed to encourage work, education, and stable family structures to improve upward mobility and reduce the cycle of dependence."
Selectively taking away from this only the "a child born into low-income family is likely to stay low income" is a misleading attempt to promote a left-wing agenda calling for a redistribution of wealth in order to change societal income levels; however the paper itself already concludes that this approach is a proven historical failure.
That AEI report is not focused on analyzing the statistical trends of economic levels across generations of families. It is analyzing the effects of The Great Society, and concludes that it hinders upward economic mobility. And there's nothing there to support the simplistic prior claim that just because someone's parents are rich or poor, then it's a certainty that they'll also end up the same. This is a defeatist attitude. If someone wants to say, well, because I come from a poor family, it must mean that the odds are stacked against me, I'll never end up achieving anything and climb out of my lower economic status, so I might as well give up and not even try, and be a loser; well, if someone's convinced that the odds are stacked against them, and they can't do anything about it, this kind of a defeatist attitude is very unfortunate. One thing's for sure. If one never tries, one will never succeed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @12:24AM
> It might actually be a good idea to read the cited American Enteprise Institute report. It does not say what you think it does.
Actually there were tons of articles to choose from, I picked that one specifically to test if you were more interested in railing against "left-wing talking points" than acknowledging the simple fact that upward mobility today is less than it was in the past. The fact that AEI attributes that fact to the welfare state is irrelevant to the point that it is a fact. But that sort of thing is bait to hyper-partisans who can only see the world through the lens of "left-wing agendas."
Meanwhile, what is especially ironic is that you are now arguing for the idea that your children will have a hard time being financially successful in the future, thus agreeing with runaway whom you were so eager to dispute earlier. Unless, that is, you instill in them good strong Trump values of being a winner and not being a loser. lol
(Score: 1) by mrsam on Monday September 07 2015, @01:51AM
Reviewing what I wrote, I do not really see where I argued any such thing. You're probably replying to the wrong post.
Furthermore, Mr. Trump didn't discover the novel idea of positive thinking, and self-confidence. You'd be shocked to learn that this concept has been in existence for a while. And this brings me back to the original topic at the beginning of this thread. I simply reject the notion that I'm "fucked" in any way, by greedy imperialitic American corporation, who stand ready at a moment's notice to replace me with some H1B who barely speaks King's English, as soon as he gets off the plane.
If someone chooses to believe that their future is doomed, and there's no hope, that's their choice to make. But I'm going to choose differently.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @11:19PM
You live in a happy little world where a person gets what they deserve. You feel you've worked hard and earned what you have. This is a sense of entitlement: I've worked hard, probably harder than you, and I've got nothing to show for it.
For seven years, I had a can-do attitude. Seven years, I did whatever I could to ensure my success and wealth. I worked 50-70 hours a week. Didn't take breaks. Took whatever extra paid work was offered to me. I worked 15 hours days six days a week, I took work home and did it faster with better equipment (my employer uses equipment that's not even a valid tax write-off anymore).
I drove in at 3am every now and then, just to make sure things were going right.
I made sure the boss knew I was working all these hours, by being seen to work, but not being heard.
If I could have done more, I would have. I made sure all the like-businesses in town knew who I was, and saw me working this hard.
This is your recipe for success. This is my recipe for failure.
My employer simply accepted that I was working these hours, and made more work available. He laid off a part-time employee because I was doing all his work as well as mine, and then got a big fat bonus from the owner for his clever staff management. It wasn't long before he realised he'd have one person doing the work of two, for less than the local minimum wage if he just kept giving me more work.
So give me more work he did, but he also made sure that he wasn't going to lose me to other businesses. He let them know about mistakes that were being made (often at his instruction), errors forced by faulty equipment or bad processes. IT failures were also assigned to me.
Can't have that "two employees" guy wandering off to a better job, now can we? We'd need to hire at least two people to replace him.
So as the pay for people underneath me went up, with a notice not to discuss pay increases on pain of dismissal, my responsibilities and hours worked went up. Equipment availability gradually became worse and worse, as it failed and was not replaced. My equipment was removed, and re-installed in other locations (it's still there, four years later) and I was told that I just had to do whatever I needed to do in order to get the job finished. For free.
My hours kept increasing, and the CEO started having me sending in shift reports and constant email updates, letting him know what I was doing, why it was taking so long. ("That hour long job you're doing, why is it taking so long?" "Well, it's a process that starts at one and goes to 3600, and I can't speed it up with the equipment I'm using." "That equipment is fine, I could do it in 10 minutes!" "Show me how, then, since you've removed half of my equipment, and this is O(n) stuff." "No, that's your problem. I've told you how it can be done.")
After years of this, having quite literally no time for myself or my partner, I quit from the role. I was not going to get a pay increase, nor was I going to get recognition. A better job offer was out of the question, my well-connected boss had seen to that.
Even technical problems were two-faced lies. I'd go see the boss, who would ring IT in front of me. He'd tell them "Get this fixed, top priority." As soon as I was out of the room, one of the IT guys once let slip, he'd ring them back and let them know they were to drop the job entirely.
I'm still owed a few thousands (although technically, for the overtime, I'm owed a few hundred thousands) but I'm never going to get that money. My reputation in my (small) country has been destroyed through working for such a fool.
If I hadn't told you any of the negative side, you would have told me that I'm doing it right. I'm on my way, and any day now I'm going to make it big, earn lots of cash. I'd be that guy everyone wanted to be.
Your life, your success, is a confluence of some hard work and a lot of random chance evaluating in your favor. If you'd come up with an employer who lied, cheated, and blamed you to all of his colleagues in the nation for his mistakes, it's doubtful you'd have got anywhere.
Be thankful for your situation, but don't hold accountable others for their misfortune.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 07 2015, @03:04AM
Be thankful for your situation, but don't hold accountable others for their misfortune.
The obvious rebuttal is that you could have quit earlier and found another job. Your boss isn't that well connected or his story that persuasive. After all, why would he continually spread stories about your incompetence, while continuing to employ you? Anyone can read between those lines should you ever choose to bring it up.
It's remarkable in these sorts of stories how little people are willing to attempt to improve their lives. I hate to say it, but it sounds to me like you are a coward. I don't see the need or benefit to extend extra advantages to people just because they are cowards.
although technically, for the overtime, I'm owed a few hundred thousands
If you didn't agree to extra pay for overtime, then you aren't owed that money. Else I'm owed a lot of faux money for overtime that I agreed to by my previous employers too. Piles of it! And I'm sure my government owes me faux money because they went off the gold standard half a century ago or because they aren't spending it like I want them to or chemtrails or whatever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @06:11AM
Dale Carnegie is right: hard work is not the answer. You gotta kiss up to make it in a human world. (Dale doesn't call it "kiss up", but it's what it really is.)
(Score: 2) by penguinoid on Monday September 07 2015, @07:54AM
One life's lesson I've learned is that a lot depends on one's own attitude. If one constantly works around complaining, and feeling sorry for oneself, bemoaning how much of a victim they are, than that's exactly what they'll always be. A victim.
Similarly, I've noticed that when people go around bemoaning how everything hurts, that's just how they are -- in constant pain. I've tried helping them, telling them that those of us who don't complain about hurting are hardly ever in pain, but they just get mad at me for some reason, and won't even give it a try.
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 07 2015, @08:04PM
telling them that those of us who don't complain about hurting are hardly ever in pain
Which often isn't actually true. Complaining about pain is not the same as experiencing pain. There's a lot to respect in a person who endures pain quietly so they don't burden their fellow humans.