The Era of the Independent Worker
Within the last few weeks new stories have been appearing about the temp workforce.
Jody Greenstone Miller and Matt Miller have a piece about the The Rise of the SuperTemp in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review. Ms. Greenstone Miller runs the Business Talent Group which places well-pedigreeed consultants in short term assignments. Matt Miller is best known as a commentator and writer.
In a recent Preoccupations in The New York Times Sunday Business section Alexandra Levit who identifies herself as a generational workplace consultant and author wrote about the new staying power of independent workers.
Certainly temporary work is not new. As the country emerged from the dot.com bust in 2004 I wrote a story in The New York Times entitled Your Next Boss Could Be a Temp. Then it was an emerging trend, now it is a universal one.
And, its a universal trend that has wide-ranging consequences for the independent workers and those who manage them. It will have implications for how managers are perceived, compensated and evaluated for promotions. In the coming weeks we’ll examine what those are and what they mean to companies, managers and the independent workers themselves.
An Income Gap for Baby Boomers During Career Transitions
New research from Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank aimed at baby boomers who want to combine work with social purpose illuminates some of the challenges to doing so. Read the rest of this entry »
The Start-Up of You
Released only yesterday, The Start-Up of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha has already skyrocked to number four of the top 100 books on amazon.com. What holds the top three slots? Even a roadmap for personal entrepreneurship and career advancement is no match for the Hunger Games trilogy. Read the rest of this entry »
College Majors, Starting Salaries and Job Growth
The National Association for Colleges and Employers recently released a report that shows job growth and starting salaries by major. Salaries increased the most for business and computer science majors and barely budged in math and sciences. What does this say about the presumed shortages STEM professions (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math.)
Separately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released data last week about job growth between 2010-2020 and anticipates much of the growth will be in health professions and education. And the report gives credence to education beyond a B.A. or B.S. with jobs requiring a Master’s degree are expected to grow over 21% faster than for any other education category.
Tags: Careers, college graduates, job creation
Taking People With You, Part Three
David Novak says that leaders need to recognize that they cast what he calls a “shadow of leadership.” And he says, whether the know or acknowledge it, subordinates emulate the behavior of leaders because they want to move up the ranks of the organization. Read the rest of this entry »
Confronting Abuse at Work
If your New Year’s resolutions include better job performance, one essential ingredient may be your relationship with your boss. Recently researchers at the University of Haifa (Isreal) examined how employees cope with the stress of abusive treatment by a superior. Read the rest of this entry »
Women in Leadership? Maybe Next Year
The news from Catalyst a New York based non-profit that focuses on women in management, delivered gloomy news today. There is still little room for women at the top. There were no significant gains made over the last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: board of directors, corporate boards, employee attitudes, female executives, gender parity, hiring, leadership, management
Dissatisfied at Work? Is it Your Age?
If you are dissatisfied at work, it could be your age. In a study released this week by the Sloan Center on Aging and Work entitled Generations of Talent Study trains a spotlight on the effects of country, age and career stage among employees worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »
Gender and Corporate Responsiblity
In a new study, Gender and Corporate Responsibility: It’s a Matter of Sustainability, conducted by researchers at Catalyst, a non-profit that focuses on the achievement of women and business and the Harvard Business School there is evidence that companies with more women in senior management positions may be better practitioners of corporate social responsibility. Previous research showed these companies, on average, financially outperform, those with fewer women in upper management. Read the rest of this entry »
Becoming a Parent/Leaving the Workplace–Choice or Discrimination?
Sylvia Ann Hewlett writes extensively about the barrier women face to promotion, especially if they exit the workplace to care for young children or increasingly aging parents. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: discrimination, parenting, work-life balance
