

Ahvoda – part-time recruitment - jerrington
http://www.ahvoda.com/

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sebkomianos
I feel very glad to see that it's not only "remote" but "part-time" that is
gathering traction in our industry. I think it aligns right with what a lot of
us want to do (work more flexible in terms of both time and space).

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dogma1138
Well judging by how many countries battle with "zero hour contracts" sorry but
just no, i would say what most people want to do is to have the "right" for a
steady and assured employment and benefits.

While it might be nice to be able to "freelance", work from home, and have all
the time you want for yourself and only work when you want/need too if this
trend continues you won't enjoy the consequences since rather quickly they'll
come and bit you in the ass.

So sorry I'm not that excited about some nifty tool that will allow even more
companies to dump full time workers in favor of part time, loosely contracted
remote or local workers. And while it's true that in some cases and in some
countries you might make more money freelance work it's circumstantial at
best, since you forgo even basic benefits such as employee insurance not to
mention healthcare, pension, 401K (and similar savings) etc.

While 5 years ago i might have salivated at the prospect of earning 100's of
dollars and hour working from my bed or from the nearest coffee shop, at
almost 30 i seem to care more about my employers pension contribution and
insurance plans than about how many days a month i can work from home. And
seeing more and more jobs being listed as part time, remote, etc, with almost
no benefits makes me dread at the prospects of employment at 40 or 45 not to
mention what kinds of Orwellian job contracts might we leave to the future
generations.

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sebkomianos
All the points you raise are about significant issues and you are right in all
the concerns you have. But why do you think that we can't combine flexible
jobs with all the benefits of the traditional full-time work? Why can't we, as
a society, go one step forward towards what we want and set the standard to be
that freelancers get insured properly, for example?

* Mind you; we are talking about a particular industry here and we start the discussion with all the facts about our industry. Artists, for example, still don't have a lower-wage. _

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dogma1138
Because it's hard to have the cake and eat it, temporary, seasonal and other
type of short time jobs are a market necessity. The beef I have is with the
(not so) recent trend of them encroaching into the territory that used to be
exclusive to full and long term "career" like jobs.

Were partly to fault at that, just look at how many Jobs you had and compare
it to your father, now I'm not saying that going back to the 2-3 jobs before
retirement average is needed, but some middle ground has to be set.

Because how i see it the jobs companies can't outsource today to low income
countries they try to fill with low income or to be more accurate low cost
jobs, partially because they no longer can reap the benefit of employees
staying for 10 or more years (since very few employees choose to do so today)
and partially because market dynamics dictate it.

But it's also because we allow them to do so by both accepting such jobs and
by legalizing jobs, when companies can advertise a part time position
permanently, when zero hour contracts can be established with no limits, and
when firing an employee can be as easy as to give them no notice at all
something is wrong.

Now again this isn't advertisement for the Dutch workforce system where firing
some one with a permanent contract requires a court appearance, no need for
such extremes, although the Dutch economy seems to be doing just fine even
with them.

From my fairly short perspective over the past 8 or so years of employment (5
of them for a single company) I've seen a horrible decline in job security,
companies offer less benefits, less security, all under the "pretense" of
flexible hours and less work. However I've not seen any actual benefits,
people work more get paid less (whether in actual or effective salary e.g.
benefits). If you want more freedom how about legalizing a shorter work week
and more lenient hours rather than offering companies less security in their
employees and accepting a less secure position in return?

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sebkomianos
Again, all the points you raise hold true. But I still don't get why you see
illegality as the result of flexible hours, just to pick an example.

I am not saying that we should give companies the legal framework to, let's
say, hire you for X hours and pay per minute without providing any insurance,
retirement benefits, etc.. What I am saying is quite the opposite - and it
stands in parallel with your example for a shorter week: We should start
looking at the needs and wants of people that sell their labour. We should
start listening at the growing voice that says, hey, it's important for me to
work less hours, please give me an opportunity to do so.

I don't see why you take it for granted that this opportunity will be wrapped
by a layer of traps and dangers for the employee. As more and more people ask
for such opportunities, it becomes society's duty to deliver them in the best
possible environment.

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dogma1138
Because you can't expect companies to pay for insecurity either. If you demand
security you have to offer it, a company which cannot relay on it's employees
because they work remotely, work at odd hours, or work inconsistent hours each
month takes on a huge risk.

That risk is accepted based on the fact that said company pays less for that
specific job than it does for a full employee due to less payouts in benefits
and employer contributions, shorter and cheaper employee on-boarding, and in
some cases less competitive pay.

Without those cost reductions "flexible" hour contracts do not make sense for
jobs that otherwise would be occupied by a full time employee.

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golergka
Is the name supposed to be עבודה or is it just a coincidence?

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wolf550e
There is no way it's a coincidence.

