[TriLUG] Sort of OT Job Posting or The quasi-literate at work

[Mike M]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 05:31:30PM -0400, Greg Brown wrote:
> 
> On Monday, Sep 13, 2004, at 14:29 US/Eastern, Mike M wrote:
> 
> > Now
> >if they decide to bust-ass and work on a 1099, the young folk might be
> >in trouble. Place your bets.
> 
> That's not if, but when.  And when is now.  At least for me and about a
> dozen other folks I know who are in my shoes.  

Excellent.  Back in the day I asked a head hunter how he managed to
get by with the feast-or-famine nature of his work.  He'd been in the
business for a while so I figured he must be doing something right. He
said that he lived below his means and averaged his income over several
years.  

> I would expect the
> competition for 1099 work to get even more stiff in the coming months
> and years.

1099 work might increase opportunities.  I hope to see a larger
market for this style of working.  I've been in the contract arena
for going on 2 years now.  Not knowing what you'll be doing in 3 months
takes getting use to, but that's business.  
> 
> Yikes.  This thread is starting to have shades of similar industries 
> that
> have gone through a tremendous downsizing.  

We call it "rightsizing".  

> Once salaries drop and
> the power pools back with the company rather than the worker you'll
> start to hear more and more grumbles about Unions.  Granted I haven't
> heard that come up, yet, but I wouldn't be too surprised if I saw an add
> in the paper in the next 12-18 months from a union who was placed as
> the single-source labor supplier for a large, local telecom provider.
> 
> Once a local computer catch-all "we can do anything at half the rate
> you can" union labor pool shows up, if it does, then things are going
> to get very, very interesting around these parts.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0608-07.htm

I don't see where unionizing will help much.  Many jobs held by
union members are now in Mexico.  The 1099rs will stop unions too.
Too many alternatives in knowledge work means low power for 
collectives.  Knowledge work may become a perfect free market.  Look
to the post-deregulated trucking industry in the US for an example of a 
free market.  Truckers are united by one thing at least - country music.
> 
> That's just my apocalyptic vision for the future that I hope doesn't
> come true.

We could ask NC tobacco, furniture, and textile workers about
apocalyptic visions.

-- 
Mike

Moving forward in pushing back the envelope of the corporate paradigm.