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Study: Working Conditions Pose Problems for Workers and Employers

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This study is larger than what is reported here. It's is about the changes employers have made in how work gets done and why, both in manual work and in the professions. The effects on workers are the unintended consequences of those changes. What is reported here is actually only a very small piece of the actual study, which was not written with any support from grants. If you read the article (not the press release, but the article), you will find that although the study did draw upon publicly available data that were collected years ago with financial support from the National Science Foundation, no grant funds were used on this project.

socialsientist of NC 8:31PM August 24, 2010

It's the greatest recession in modern times. Changing times changing loyalty. Public and private leaders are into a phase of creative disassembly where constant reinvention and adjustments are constant. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are being shed by GE, Chevron, Sam’s Club, Wells Fargo Bank, HP, USA military, Starbucks etc. and the state, counties and cities. Even solid world class institutions like the University of California Berkeley under the leadership of Chancellor Birgeneau & Provost Breslauer are firing staff, faculty and part-time lecturers.Yet many employees, professionals and faculty cling to old assumptions about one of the most critical relationship of all: the implied, unwritten contract between employer and employee.
Until recently, loyalty was the cornerstone of that relationship. Employers promised job security and a steady progress up the hierarchy in return for employees fitting in, performing in prescribed ways and sticking around. Longevity was a sign of employeer-employee relations; turnover was a sign of dysfunction. None of these assumptions apply today. Organizations can no longer guarantee employment and lifetime careers, even if they want to.
Organizations that paralyzed themselves with an attachment to “success brings success’ rather than “success brings failure’ are now forced to break the implied contract with employees – a contract nurtured by management that the future can be controlled.
Jettisoned employees are finding that the hard won knowledge, skills and capabilities earned while being loyal are no longer valuable in the employment market place.
What kind of a contract can employers and employees make with each other? The central idea is both simple and powerful: the job or position is a shared situation. Employers and employees face market and financial conditions together, and the longevity of the partnership depends on how well the for-profit or not-for-profit continues to meet the needs of customers and constituencies. Neither employer nor employee has a future obligation to the other. Organizations train people. Employees develop the kind of security they really need – skills, knowledge and capabilities that enhance future employability.
The partnership can be dissolved without either party considering the other a traitor. Employee loyalty to management is dead. Long live the new employee loyalty!

Milan Moravec of CA 4:32PM August 18, 2010

This is such a joke. After reading the article and found out it was done by a grant, that was disguisting. I have found it difficult to deal with my employer, but hasn't everyone. I just think this article was a waste of someone's time.

Karen of FL 12:17PM August 17, 2010