Mill Talk: The Disposable Workforce: Why, How Much, and Consequences For Workers and For Employers
presented by Paul Osterman
Free to the Public, REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Paul Osterman will discuss his new book, Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment, which was recently published by Harvard University Press. Drawing from a large new nationally representative survey as well as from interviews the book lays out how and why employers utilize freelancers, contractors, many part-timers, and marginal workers who are legally employees but disconnected from their firm’s career ladder.
It argues that 35 percent of the adult workforce is disposable from the perspective of employers often with negative consequences for worker well-being and for firm performance. Recognizing that some people prefer the status and that firms need flexibility the book lays out strategies to address this challenge.
Paul Osterman is a Professor Emeritus of Human Resources and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as a member of the Department of Urban Planning at MIT. From July 2003 to June 2007 he also served as Deputy Dean at the MIT Sloan School.
His research concerns changes in work organization within companies, career patterns and processes within firms, economic development, urban poverty, and public policy surrounding skills training and employment programs.
Osterman has been a senior administrator of job training programs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and has consulted widely for government agencies, foundations, community groups, firms, and public interest organizations.
Prior to Disposable Workers, his most recent book was Who Will Care For Us: Long Term Care and the Long Term Workforce. Other recent books include Good Jobs America: Making Work Better for Everyone; The Truth About Middle Managers: Who They Are, How They Work, How They Matter; Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics in America; Securing Prosperity: The American Labor Market: How It Has Changed and What to Do About It, and Working In America: A Blueprint for the New Labor Market .
Osterman is also the author of Employment Futures: Reorganization, Dislocation, and Public Policy; Getting Started: The Youth Labor Market; The Mutual Gains Enterprise: Forging a Winning Partnership Among Labor, Management, and Government; and Change At Work. He is the editor of two books, Internal Labor Markets and Broken Ladders: Managerial Careers in the New Economy. In addition, he has written numerous academic journal articles and policy issue papers on topics such as labor market policy, the organization of work within firms, careers, job training programs, economic development, and anti-poverty programs.
Mill Talks at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation are free and open to the public and are made possible by the generous support of the Lowell Institute.
