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Anti-permanence

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I thought that its year-long stability and permanence was one of the greatest advantages of the job I’m offering. I was actually starting every conversation with, “This is guaranteed employment for at least a year” because I thought people would like that.

Boy, was I stupid. Permanence – even for just a year – was the job’s greatest drawback. Of course, I knew younger people would prefer a patchwork of short, burst-like contracts to a single longer one. But I didn’t know this was going to be the case for older people, too.

Apparently, fluidity is being embraced far more aggressively than I thought. And it’s curious that nobody is even trying to discuss the enormous transformation of the very concept of work that is occurring.

Remember my sister’s company I keep telling you about? With free trips to Japan as gifts to employees, profit-sharing, gym memberships, education funds, spa visits, flexible working conditions, supplemental health insurance, and every method of cherishing employees under the sun? Think it’s easy for them to hire?  Ha ha. People prefer to work for telemarketing call centers instead. No spas, restaurants and trips but you can pop in and out, work in short, staccato bursts, float freely from one place to another.

It’s fluidity, stupid.

5 responses to “Anti-permanence”

  1. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    Boy, was I stupid. Permanence – even for just a year – was the job’s greatest drawback.
    No, that’s a long(ish) term contract.

    Of course, I knew younger people would prefer a patchwork of short, burst-like contracts to a single longer one. But I didn’t know this was going to be the case for older people, too.
    Perhaps it’s part of the overall fluidity of work now. But also nannying and individualized childcare (babysitting) is thought of as an easily interruptible, start-and-stop again kind of work that women and girls do. It’s not professionalized and Taylorized like some other jobs are and were done by people considered marginal to the work force. Did you know that Social Security was designed to exclude agricultural and domestic workers(including nannies) Hence now you get a lot of people who cannot/do not want to have a full time job. Historically, that’s women.

    Remember my sister’s company I keep telling you about? With free trips to Japan as gifts to employees, profit-sharing, gym memberships, education funds, spa visits, flexible working conditions, supplemental health insurance, and every method of cherishing employees under the sun? Think it’s easy for them to hire? Ha ha. People prefer to work for telemarketing call centers instead. No spas, restaurants and trips but you can pop in and out, work in short, staccato bursts, float freely from one place to another.

    The market of people who actively want telemarketing jobs and the people who’d enjoy working at your sister’s company are two different types of workers. Recruiting is very different than telemarketing, AFAIK. Telemarketing is a one off; and recruiting is about building relationships between a client and worker, at least for long enough to put both of them in a mutually agreeable situation. I’m sure there’s some cold calling but it’s not as much and it’s not “oh read these lines to people off an auto-dialer.”

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “No, that’s a long(ish) term contract.”

      • And it proved way too long, it turns out.

      What’s funny is that I know the theory so well but I failed to apply it in my own life. Nothing happens unless there is a profound collective need for it. People want fluidity. Especially people from opulent societies. I didn’t grow up in such a society, and maybe that’s why I find it so hard to recognize the signs.

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  2. TomW Avatar
    TomW

    I think another factor is that jobs like this sometimes involve terrible treatment in addition to low wages. I know several people who’ve worked as nannies and au pairs and it sounds like bad situations are unfortunately common with this type of work. Everything starts out just fine and very reasonable, then demands for doing work beyond the original agreement begin to pile up while the treatment of the person becomes worse and worse. Some people with experience may be wary of making commitments until they know for sure how you are going to behave towards them.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      There is no way I can prevent anybody from quitting at any time, obviously. If people don’t like me or the work they can simply stop showing up. All I was asking for is for somebody to say that they are open to the possibility of staying on for a year. I wasn’t going to chain anybody to the radiator.

      I have to repeat that this is a very wealthy little town. Prospective nannies show up decked out in jewelry and in huge new jeeps. I, in the meantime, drive an 11 year old car. These are not sad, beaten down victims of poverty and oppression we are talking about.

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      1. TomW Avatar
        TomW

        Of course you can’t force them to stay. I only meant that experienced people in this field might be particularly wary of making commitments or even seeming like they might be making a commitment.

        The town being wealthy is probably a bigger problem; that means lots of people who can afford to hire nannies and not so many potential nannies needing work.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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