The gig economy gets a lot of negative press, but is it actually a bad thing? Although some think it is synonymous with income insecurity and bad management practices, in fact for many it is the way they choose to work. For professional workers who...
Yes I miss in-person presentations, a lot actually, but cool that we can still keep the conversations going. Here I am on someone's laptop (you can see his coffee mug to the right) as I speak to the Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association fall conference...
Why choose one career when you can do more than one at the same time? In these days of gig jobs and the need to pivot as the economy change, maybe we should thinking hard about 'portfolio careers' or doing several things at the same...
Freelance work something of a controversial workforce trend. To some, it is the dreaded gig economy, those who are forced to work on contracts or driving ride shares because they cannot find that holy grail, the full-time job. To others though, it represents freedom, the ability to...
One of the big worries regarding the future of work is that jobs are going to disappear altogether, replaced by breathtaking technology and clever robots. That is happening to an extent, but apparently some dregs are being left for humans, for better or work. 'Ghost...
The future of work is a huge subject, not one that can really be tackled by in a forty minute period, but we gave it a shot at the Globe and Mail's recent Future Forward conference. I was part of a panel that touched on...
I am thrilled to announce that my book Work Is Not a Place: Our Lives and Our Organizations in the Post-Jobs Economy has been nominated for Canada's National Business Book Award. Last year at this time I was sitting looking at my laptop and wondering...
I actually am a fan of the hashtag gigeconomy..in many ways it is a better way to get work done and for some workers it offers a ton of flexibility, or is at least an alternative to the traditional model of work. That said, not...
Okay, we have to talk about a recession. It might not happen, but enough indicators are suggesting that it is a possibility that we do have to go there. At the moment, we have these incredibly low unemployment rates in Canada and the U.S. but...
Well maybe most people do still work 'normal' hours but they want to shake things up as well. See the column I wrote about the topic for the Globe and Mail here. ...
I am thrilled to now be writing a bi-weekly column for the Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. See my first here - it is a look at how the gig economy is in force but our social policies are woefully out of step with...
Is there a better way to see the future of work than to follow the drama that is Uber? The ride-hailing service burst on to the scene in San Francisco just about six years ago and nothing has been the same ever since. From how...
I'm happy to have been able to contribute to Macleans' list of '75 Charts Every Canadian Should Watch in 2017'. My post was on the 'Gig Economy' and you can find it here (you have to scroll down to find it, but that gives you...
If I had to think of an industry prone to poisonous industrial relations battles I would probably think first or the auto sector, or maybe even something like education or health. The battles in those industries, however, are apparently being matched by orchestras (can I...
Robots, joined by Gig Workers, are now making Twinkies, and they are doing such a good job that their parent company is going public. That’s a powerful statement about today’s manufacturing and economy, never mind our nutritional preferences. Twinkies, those flaky, cream-filled snack cakes that are...
Amongst the problems with the Sharing Economy – and its offshoot, the Gig Economy – is the fact that shares in it tend to be pretty unequal. In fact, even more than is the case of a usual employee-employer relationship, oftentimes the ‘employee’ in this...
Freelancing may be becoming a new norm - and that's okay in an economic sense...