Why Unemployment Will Remain High

Worker productivity is at an all-time high. Off the charts.

So, as our creaky, cranky economy slogs forward, companies will stretch overtime before hiring more employees. Given their increasing experience with "contingents," companies will consider contractors, consultants and temps before hiring more employees with all the burden.

How do we make a living? We stop thinking about "job" and start thinking about "work" to seize the second option.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

Business Book Creates Chopstick Shortage
Author Daniel Pink, expert, blame engineering subculture

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Plastic forks are rapidly replacing traditional wooden chopsticks at Chinese restaurants throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and a career advice book apparently is the reason.

The Chinese Fast Food Coalition, which represents 140,000 restaurants in the nine-county area, says customers are stealing thousands of disposable chopsticks to summon a sexy, Gen-Y genie in the book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko.

Forced to work through the night, disgruntled office worker Johnny Bunko drops into a Chinese takeout restaurant and is given six pairs of chopsticks. When he rubs a pair together, the genie appears to teach Bunko and his friends the keys to career success.

“It seems a lot of people think the genie is real and want to meet her,” says Ken Wong, EVP of the association. “She’s kind of hot, but, jeez, stealing chopsticks?”

Pink, a best-selling author (Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind), lecturer and business consultant says the phenomenon likely erupted in the Bay area because of the high concentration of engineers.

“A lot of engineers spend 20 hours a day focused on left-brain activities like linear logic,” Pink says. “When confronted with a right-brain challenge, such as relating what they take in to experience, they're completely lost.”

Bill Bucy, a writer and 20-year Silicon Valley resident, agrees with Pink but adds another factor.

“I’ve met hundreds of gearheads incapable of expressing ideas in a language other than code,” he says. “Bunko was created in the Japanese manga (comic book) style, which makes it more widely understandable within their subculture.”

Free Agent Generations

I recently interviewed Bruce Tulgan, a researcher, author and speaker who focuses on how to understand Gen X and Gen Y. Like the insightful Dan Pink, he sees the workplace becoming a collection of free agents -- something he believes fits perfectly with the thinking of tomorrow's leaders. A few exceprts follow.
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For example, the old-fashioned workplace was filled with onsite, long-term, uninterrupted, exclusive employees. The future of the workforce is shorter-term, non-exclusive people who might even leave and come back later.

I think . . . that it is the future of work, whether someone is on a payroll or or under a contract.

In some cases jobs are positioned as old-style – onsite, ongoing and so on. But even people in those roles over the span of their careers are experiencing work they way contingent workers do. That’s clearly the trend.

In addition, the distincition between an old-fashioned employee and a contingent is becoming less significant. Frankly contingent workers are getting more respect, more benefits and doing more significant work and those in traditional employee roles will probably say they have less and less security.

But the biggest mistake a manager can make is looking at someone and say, “we've got them.” It’s like if you got married, said "I've got you," and then started acting like a jerk. That’s not a formula for a long relationship, even among people who stood up before family, friends and God to swear loyalty unto death. So why should your employees tolerate that? After all, it’s just a job.

Tough Love for Laid Off Newspaper Journos

Having resigned from and been fired from newspaper jobs, having done corporate and tech PR, having run my own consulting business, I offer this advice.

Do not take a break and decompress. Your severance is your lifeline, not a bonus. Start now to look for your next role in the marketplace because it will be more difficult than you think. Kudos if you began working on it before the ax neared your neck.

Park your ego. Every journalist invests a big chunk of ego in what they do. Despite the value of your last job, it's over and you need to be realistic when you knock on potential employers' doors.

Look hard at your skills. A friend once said to me, "Hey, I can write about anything, I'm a newspaper reporter." A year out of the business he said, "Don't tell anyone I said that." Today, the writers most eagerly sought are in marketing and advertising. And they tend to specialize in sub-categories such as direct mail, online and so on. If you don't believe me, check out the job boards.

A bright spot: If your skills apply to the farther end of the editorial process -- copy editing, pagination, production editing -- your job hunt will be shorter than faced by your colleagues who got to leave the building to earn their paycheck. But understand you're more likely to guide a catalog or a brochure onto the press than anything sexy.

The freelance thing. You know it's a tough grind. But if you want to give it a go, understand it's all about niches -- and, sometimes, niches within niches. Your reporting and writing skills will be invaluable. But most publications need people who are knowledgeable about their specialty. Sure, you covered Cisco, but what the bleep do you know about networking technology and products?

Also, think about the vast space between daily journalism and hacking out news releases. Alumni magazines, Web content and trade publications focused on things you know. Big bucks? Probably not. But if you can balance what they pay against the time you need to put in, you could create a regular income stream.

PR? -- Most companies and agencies today want experienced PR people. (Again, look at the job boards.) Your newspaper credentials will be recognized, but only as they apply to what you covered. Business writer? Great. But are you current on the issues and trends affecting my company/client? Think PR is beneath you? Go get a paper route.

Teach? -- ESL, yes. Journalism, no. People are lined up out the door for journalism gigs and they usually pay less than the cost of the gas it takes to drive to work.

Try something completely different -- You know how to interview people, paw through databases, grasp what details are important and recognize what questions must be answered before the final product is released. Those are excellent skills that can be applied to almost any venture in life.

Required reading: Dan Pink's books. I know him and he understands the future of work.