White-Collar Commotion
What used to be relatively nice, safe office jobs are looking a lot less secure these days. Not only are white-collar workers bearing the brunt of recent job cuts, there are signs that many of their jobs could be moved overseas. And some observers claim that white-collar jobs within the U.S. are becoming increasingly arduous even as they undergo major transformations.
The current economic slowdown is picking up where the 1990-91 recession left off, when lots of college-educated workers found that they were as expendable as their blue-collar brethren. Fortune magazine reports, "In the old manufacturing economy, blue-collar unemployment always rose and fell in lock step with factory inventories; now a similar thing is happening to the mostly white-collar workers in the sleek offices of the new economy. Morgan Stanley estimates that 81% of layoffs in March and April were white-collar."
Some of those jobs could be moved to other nations. More companies are looking abroad to find skilled workers, often to nations with large English-speaking populations such as India and the Philippines. "Companies are seeking workers to take jobs ranging from basic clerical, accounting, customer support, and legal services, to software design, scientific research, and pharmaceutical development," reports Business Week. It's a trend that could accelerate in coming years. Michael Dertouzos, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science, estimates that up to 50 million new white-collar jobs could be created in India.
Such changes are part of a larger picture, suggests management guru and author Tom Peters. He claims that over the next 10 to 15 years more than 90% of white-collar positions "will disappear or be reconfigured beyond recognition." He believes that managers will increasingly scrutinize both the jobs and the contributions of individual white-collar employees. In Industry Week magazine, he states, "Between reengineering and these so-called ERP [enterprise resource planning] systems, the conventional white-collar department becomes literally the dinosaur to end all dinosaurs – unless it can figure out a way to provide some distinctive value-added services for the rest of the enterprise."
But if white-collar workers have to justify their jobs in the face of global outsourcing and new technologies, then it'll be just another in a series of blows, suggests the work of Jill Andresky Fraser. As the author of White-Collar Sweatshop, she argues that white-collar jobs are already in the midst of the type of turmoil and deterioration that Peters predicts. She harkens back to a time when "the nation's largest corporations were viewed by white-collar Americans as the source of jobs worth dreaming about: offering security, comfortable working conditions, the prospect of a balanced work and home life, and a wide range of financial benefits." She claims that today's estimated 80 million U.S. white-collar workers have it much tougher, often working very long hours, coping with eroding healthcare benefits, feeling constantly tethered to the workplace via cell phones and beepers, dealing with slow or stagnant wage growth, and always feeling insecure about their jobs no matter how hard and well they work.
Yet, despite Fraser's impressive marshaling of data, some book reviewers find it hard to swallow her argument whole. Today's white-collar employees may have it tougher than their parents did, but comparing them "to real sweatshop workers borders on the offensive," writes Steven Lagerfeld in the Wall Street Journal. He goes on to quip, "I was not persuaded by Ms. Fraser's assertion that people forced to field business calls on the Hamptons jitney are victims of corporate oppression." Moreover, it can be argued that some of the same policies that have made the lives of white-collar workers less secure have helped the U.S. adjust quickly to a hyper-competitive global marketplace.
Nonetheless, Fraser's analysis could help explain the 1990s' rise in U.S. worker dissatisfaction and stress as well as voluntary quit rates. It may also be connected to the minor inroads that labor unions have recently made with some professional groups, including doctors.
At least in the near future, the factors causing commotion in the white-collar world – such as globalization, new technologies, and reengineering – are likely to become more rather than less potent. Whether or not white-collar employees keep their current jobs, the kind of work they perform is almost certain to change. Employer-employee relationships could become stormier if change proves too painful, and an era of massive retraining might be needed.
====================================================
To read more about white-collar layoffs, please see
http://www.i4cp.com/WEsW0A
To read how U.S. and European companies are outsourcing service jobs to workers around the globe, please see
http://www.i4cp.com/7HDHHh
For information on Tom Peters's ideas on how white-collar work is going to be affected by a "five-sided pincer movement," see
http://www.i4cp.com/soL9Pj
For more on Fraser's White-Collar Sweatshop, see these links:
http://www.i4cp.com/zhYY9w
http://www.i4cp.com/cx6ATq
Wall Street Journal subscribers can look for Steven Lagerfeld's March 5, 2001, book review, "Work, Go Home, Answer Cell Phone, Work More" at
http://www.i4cp.com/sMH7KV
The current economic slowdown is picking up where the 1990-91 recession left off, when lots of college-educated workers found that they were as expendable as their blue-collar brethren. Fortune magazine reports, "In the old manufacturing economy, blue-collar unemployment always rose and fell in lock step with factory inventories; now a similar thing is happening to the mostly white-collar workers in the sleek offices of the new economy. Morgan Stanley estimates that 81% of layoffs in March and April were white-collar."
Some of those jobs could be moved to other nations. More companies are looking abroad to find skilled workers, often to nations with large English-speaking populations such as India and the Philippines. "Companies are seeking workers to take jobs ranging from basic clerical, accounting, customer support, and legal services, to software design, scientific research, and pharmaceutical development," reports Business Week. It's a trend that could accelerate in coming years. Michael Dertouzos, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science, estimates that up to 50 million new white-collar jobs could be created in India.
Such changes are part of a larger picture, suggests management guru and author Tom Peters. He claims that over the next 10 to 15 years more than 90% of white-collar positions "will disappear or be reconfigured beyond recognition." He believes that managers will increasingly scrutinize both the jobs and the contributions of individual white-collar employees. In Industry Week magazine, he states, "Between reengineering and these so-called ERP [enterprise resource planning] systems, the conventional white-collar department becomes literally the dinosaur to end all dinosaurs – unless it can figure out a way to provide some distinctive value-added services for the rest of the enterprise."
But if white-collar workers have to justify their jobs in the face of global outsourcing and new technologies, then it'll be just another in a series of blows, suggests the work of Jill Andresky Fraser. As the author of White-Collar Sweatshop, she argues that white-collar jobs are already in the midst of the type of turmoil and deterioration that Peters predicts. She harkens back to a time when "the nation's largest corporations were viewed by white-collar Americans as the source of jobs worth dreaming about: offering security, comfortable working conditions, the prospect of a balanced work and home life, and a wide range of financial benefits." She claims that today's estimated 80 million U.S. white-collar workers have it much tougher, often working very long hours, coping with eroding healthcare benefits, feeling constantly tethered to the workplace via cell phones and beepers, dealing with slow or stagnant wage growth, and always feeling insecure about their jobs no matter how hard and well they work.
Yet, despite Fraser's impressive marshaling of data, some book reviewers find it hard to swallow her argument whole. Today's white-collar employees may have it tougher than their parents did, but comparing them "to real sweatshop workers borders on the offensive," writes Steven Lagerfeld in the Wall Street Journal. He goes on to quip, "I was not persuaded by Ms. Fraser's assertion that people forced to field business calls on the Hamptons jitney are victims of corporate oppression." Moreover, it can be argued that some of the same policies that have made the lives of white-collar workers less secure have helped the U.S. adjust quickly to a hyper-competitive global marketplace.
Nonetheless, Fraser's analysis could help explain the 1990s' rise in U.S. worker dissatisfaction and stress as well as voluntary quit rates. It may also be connected to the minor inroads that labor unions have recently made with some professional groups, including doctors.
At least in the near future, the factors causing commotion in the white-collar world – such as globalization, new technologies, and reengineering – are likely to become more rather than less potent. Whether or not white-collar employees keep their current jobs, the kind of work they perform is almost certain to change. Employer-employee relationships could become stormier if change proves too painful, and an era of massive retraining might be needed.
====================================================
To read more about white-collar layoffs, please see
http://www.i4cp.com/WEsW0A
To read how U.S. and European companies are outsourcing service jobs to workers around the globe, please see
http://www.i4cp.com/7HDHHh
For information on Tom Peters's ideas on how white-collar work is going to be affected by a "five-sided pincer movement," see
http://www.i4cp.com/soL9Pj
For more on Fraser's White-Collar Sweatshop, see these links:
http://www.i4cp.com/zhYY9w
http://www.i4cp.com/cx6ATq
Wall Street Journal subscribers can look for Steven Lagerfeld's March 5, 2001, book review, "Work, Go Home, Answer Cell Phone, Work More" at
http://www.i4cp.com/sMH7KV