So much has changed since the year 2000. We’re no longer texting using the number pad of an old-school Nokia. For some of us, our smart phone now provides our pay check. In the last 20 years, the way we’re employed has evolved almost as quickly as our mobile phones. For a lot of us that means our work has become a lot less secure than it once was.
In this episode "The rise of insecure work" of the This Working Life podcast, host Lisa Leong delves into the rise in insecure work – how it’s grown, the impact it’s had on us and what we can do about it.
Most of us are well aware of the negative effect of this kind of work on our health, but perhaps the most surprising impact is on our personality. Professor Sharon Parker is an expert in employee growth and development from Curtin University. She's part of a research team who studied the link between this kind of work and changes in our personalities by tracking over a thousand Australians for more than a decade.
Her research argues that insecurity and its negative effects can be mitigated by the combined actions of individuals themselves, organisations, and government. Individuals can proactively build their skills and networks to enhance their employability; organisations can support employees transitions to new jobs when automation or other changes are introduced; and government can put in place active labor market policies such as supported training programs.