Contract employment, or employment "agreements" will be the new norm. Employers want to retain top talent. Employers also want to poach young talented employees from other employers who train them.
That is good news in a market like this, especially for highly skilled employees. In the legal industry, law firms are making promises to not fire attorneys, no matter what, and are still spending lavishly on recruiting. Law firms know as other industries know or will find out. There is a need for young educated workers, and they aren't loyal to a company, and they are desperate for some type of balance. Furthermore, because they saw what happened in the 90's with the layoffs and the over-kill, and they know that there is no loyalty to the employee, but only the bottom line.
Perhaps the law firms are lying. Perhaps corporations will continue the hire and fire cycle, continuous with the economic upturns and downturns. But I can't help but hope that there will be solidarity in the ranks, and the good talented young people will band together and show employers that they won't be treated like pawns to be sacrificed to the god of revenue. And maybe, but maybe, the corporate heads will think twice before they hand out those pink slips.
2 comments:
I think you are dead on, with so much job hopping in a down market. One can only imagine that it will be worst in the coming years when the job market gets better. Employers will have to do more to retain talent, and contracts are the easiest way but not the smartest.
I don't think that it will be contracts per se. But I do think that there will be some sort of "string" in place, to make workers stay at least a little while, and I also think that the idea of severance for employees who aren't management, but rather simply educated and skilled, will become more of the norm.
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