Today I look at how ad agencies are staring to offer "flexible" and "fractional" working agreements" for (expensive) "alumni" (read, creative talent they don't want to pay full time) and freelancers (who are charging more because they have insecure tenure), where they offer this top talent a guaranteed half-job of around 20 weeks a year.
We have predicted job sharing / downsizing by any other other name schemes like this (and 4 day work weeks) for years at Flux Trends, and my colleagues dion chang and Sharon Pearce have written extensively about the shift from career ladders towards career "portfolios"; and from slurred jobs with indefinite tenure towards "MSA"s where you constantly have to justify your value to keep getting paid - or, to put it more simply, how one jobs is just not enough to pay the rent anymore.
What are your thoughts?
Is this shift necessary? Is it kind?
Are you comfortable with the trade-off between freedom and security shifting away from security and towards more freedom?
Let us know. The future of work is shifting fast.
Read more:
Fractional work (and the future of sharing is caring jobs): https://adage.com/article/agency-news/rga-launches-fractional-work-program-alumni/2506531
Career portfolios (and career cul-de-sacs : https://adage.com/article/agency-news/rga-launches-fractional-work-program-alumni/2506531
Want to discuss the future of work in a human context? Join us here: https://fluxtrends.com/our-future-of-us-salon-is-coming-to-cape-town/
Fractional reserve carerring