Are you precarious?
A theme of a number of presentations at the Control or Care of the Self conference in Hamburg in July 2008 was precarious working arrangements, and the impact these are having on society. I had to ask what the term precarious working arrangements was referring to, because I had not heard it before.
I assumed it was referring to people who gained income through working at the margins of society, at the edges of legality, such as burglars or sex workers.
But no! The concept of precarious working arrangements means the shift to contract working and self employment. This seems to be happening on a large scale in Europe and academics are now writing about it extensively.
I was struck by the thought that at this academic conference of 60 people, all of them were employed by universities or tertiary institutions. I was the one person there who was self-employed, I was a part of the group that was being described as "precarious."
There is no doubt that in addition to your technical skills you do need to have the additional ability to generate work if you are self employed. And yet I have never felt less precarious in my working life.
It was ironic that I was seen as in a precarious group as I had been talking to several people who were on fixed term employment contracts with their universities, and I could sense their concern about what their next job would be.
I had to wonder which was the precarious group – the self employed or the academics.
Wow, that is an interesting point of view. I would have thought that self employed people at least have control over their situation, in a far more effective way than, say an academic.
(Although being on tenure is the equivalent of a job for life, isn’t it?)
I think I’d rather be “precarious” and therefore having to be on top of my game in order to survive, than “comfortable”.
Comment by Emily — September 18, 2008 @ 10:58 am