Temp: The Real Story of What Happened to Your Salary, Benefits, and Job Security

Some time in the 1970s American employers decided that they were primarily in the business of making profits, not providing wages and benefits to employees to make stuff or serve customers. One way to increase profits is to use a "flexible, contingent" workforce (AKA Temps) who are paid less and benefitted less than the old full time workforce. Hyman's book does an excellent job of describing this process. Today, in spite of the glowing employment numbers, 57 million American US Workers are part of the Gig economy, not just working from paycheck to paycheck, but from temporary job to temporary job. The Department of Labor counts 27.33 million Americans as working part time (that is, anywhere from 1 hour to 35 hours a week). Hyman, himself a former McKinsey consultant, does a great job describing the insidious role consultants (and I'm a retired one of those) played in shifting the instability of capitalism from employers to employees. Next time you catch an Uber ride, ask the driver how much they have saved for retirement.

This is a fine book that tells the history of the post-ww II corporation to present day and the way that work in our society has become increasingly intensified yet insecure. It is very interesting to read, never dull. It brings to life the history of the temp industry, the consulting industry and illustrates how the temp worker was at time glamorized (White women "Kelly Girl" office workers) and at other times hidden (undocumented immigrant assemblers and garment workers). Now that precarious model is the ideal low-cost/no benefits worker pursued by corporations and their consultants as layoffs are the mantra used to quickly boost stock profits that yield short term gains for CEOs and stockholders. Long term planning and innovation as well as the lives and health of workers are casualties in the Temp story.

Temp is the kind of book that you'll want to discuss with your friends, colleagues, and family. Author Louis Hyman tells a compelling story of why nine-to-five, 40 hours per week employment has morphed into temporary gigs that help the corporate bottom line, but offer no benefits or job security. He also discusses the pros and cons of working for digital temp work sites such as Etsy and Uber; and takes a peek at what the future will bring in terms of machines learning to do human work (such as teaching a robot to fold a towel). Filled with interesting and compelling examples from the past to the present, Temp is a must-read for anyone working in America today.

Relatively long read - approx 350 pages...Many repetitions...Nevertheless a superb description and analysis of the key drivers and mechanics behind the changes in the contemporary workforce. Valuable academic perspective on how the employment continues drifting from a stable industrial era jobs to a flexible and less secure arrangements.All of us working for large or medium corporations should understand and internalize those changes, and really to enjoy and to take advantage of the opportunities those changes have to offer.

I am half way through and bought a copy for a friend. I though I had a good understanding of the corporate world, our economy and the forces that drive our culture and society. I never realized how ignorant I could be. Not only is the book informative, but I find it reads like a novel. It flows and I sit up reading until the wee hours. The book is not going to be loved by all, but lovers of sociology, economics and history will find it amazing. Enjoy

"Temp" masterfully recounts the accelerating trend in the transformation of the American job from full-time employment with paid vacation, health care and pension plans to becoming independent contractors lacking such benefits while in short-term and temporary assignments. An increasing number of workers no longer enjoy the job security or fringe benefits that their parents and grandparents took for granted.

Overall enjoyable read. The end felt rushed compared to the detail found in the beginning of the book where stories about individuals made it easy to connect the global changes in work with the individual workers and those few running it all.

Overall I thought the book was an interesting read. Would recommend to anyone who has concerns of the future of work.

Muita informação sobre os antecedentes do processo de precarização das relações de trabalho nos Estados Unidos