The History of Benefits, 1980 - 2010
January 25, 2008
I had an interesting discussion yesterday with one of the business incubator team where I have my office. He asked me why employers continue to pay for health insurance given that premiums for employer-provided health insurance went up more than 80% since 2000. I don’t know the answer, even as I struggle with [...]
There was a story on Marketplace the other day about permalancers, full-time staffers who aren’t on staff. All of the work, none of the benefits. I think employees in 2010+ may be forced to become freelancers/permalancers by their employer, if they want to or not. My advice is to beat your employer to the punch. Treat your employer as a client and diversify your client base.
The unfortunate part of this is a lot of personality types may not be suited for the freelancing life… talking to clients, making sales, marketing, etc. Enter “freelancing tribes” (term borrowed from Kevin Koym) Tribe members would share responsibilities and cater to each others strengths. Perhaps these tribes are the next level of coworking.
Here’s the Marketplace story: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/23/permalance
Love the blog!
The idea of “freelancing tribes” might just hit it right on the mark.
Fifteen years ago, Tom Peters and others were talking about the importance of ‘thinking as if you were a contractor or consultant rather than an employee’ (in other words, making sure that you kept your eye on the value you were generating vs. the money you were making every single day). The ideas never really caught on in the employee workplace — for many reasons including an attractive alternative.
People have always known that they share different skills and have always worked together — without “management” — to accomplish things that required those different skills. Sometimes all it takes is the right word/meme/etc. to crystallize the thinking. In many ways, I think that’s what happened with both “coworking” and with “Jelly”. The alternatives are now available — at a time when the financial picture might just change how employers think.
Thanks Dusty!