By 2020 50% Of Jobs Will Be "Task Rabbit", "Contingency, Or "Contract". Alternet.

[TheMastersNemesis]

A job with a regular employer is going the way of the DoDo bird over time. On alter net the new economy is where workers are pretty much on their own. That means few jobs with benefits. And the way the GOP sees it that is the way the free market should be. Benefits are a privileges businesses cannot afford in a global economy. Having to pay a pay check is bad enough.

What we see here the culmination of the Reagan revolution began in 1981. The new service economy has workers competing for work based on their skills and ability like actors do for their roles. A job becomes a series of contracts where there is no employer of record.

An economy with such an on demand job market creates instability. And most workers cannot make a living when so many jobs are just "temporary tasks. And if you cannot work or compete for some reason you are screwed. There is no safety net.

[CrispyQ]

1. Companies are passing expenses onto customer & employees in ways I would not have imagined.

It's like they should never incur any business expenses - like all that should be passed off to the customer or employee.

My BIL works for a big car dealership in TX in the service department & made a $400 mistake. They took it out of his paycheck - all of it in one paycheck. I didn't think that was legal. ???

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. I Worked For DOL For 24 Yrs. IT IS ILLEGAL AS HELL.

It is illegal to dock workers for mistakes, or mishaps on the job. That is a gross violation of federal law as I remember it. I assume it was not changed since I retired in 1998. You can be fired or disciplined in some way.

The problem is that employee do not know their rights anymore. As I understand the federal posting that used to be on business bulletin boards are no longer posted. The other part of the problem is that enforcement divisions in most states and at the federal level suffered budget cuts. There are fewer personnel to enforce our federal laws.

And if you file a claim against your employer you usually get fired. Real catch 22.

Employers are exploiting employees like never before. And little is being done about it. And it is really probably as bad as before labor laws.

[CrispyQ]

3. I read another article today that employers are having employees sign non-compete clauses -

so if you leave the company, you can't go work for a similar company. It started in the software biz, so employees couldn't take company code, but now even sandwich companies are doing this! So if you work for Subway you can't get a job at Quiznos. I don't know how much longer Americans will tolerate this type of abuse.


Found the story. Guess it wasn't Subway/Quiznos, but still.

http://www.startribune.com/franken-finds-sandwich-shop-s-non-compete-rule-ridiculous/306176061/

[Rex]

4. No need to wait, that time is already here! Many are learning what a 1099 form is for

the very first time in their working career.