“The 15-hour workweek: Canada’s part-time problem”

This article talks about problems some workers are facing with their part-time jobs and states that there are “nearly a million Canadian who work park-time when they’d prefer full-time hours”. People with part-time positions usually don’t have most of the benefits that full-time positions do, and usually get a lower pay.

With economic competition ramping up, many companies are looking to cut costs by employing more part-time workers. Variability in work hours can cause stress for may of these part-time or temporary employees, and creates an unstable economic situation for them.

I think that this is really reflective of the class preparation we did for Class 7: Business Model Canvas and Strategy. We compared and contrasted ‘Porter’s Generic Strategies’ with Rita McGrath’s ‘Transient Advantage’. Companies that are employing more part-time workers are practicing the use of transient advantage. They are making labor more ‘disposable’, thus making it easier for the companies to remain fluid in changing business strategies as they go. McGrath’s “Transient Advantage” is the more modern of the two strategies, so the increasing amount of part time workers might be a result of more companies trying to gain a transient advantage.

Image: http://www.futuristgerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/wave-of-transient-advantage-rita.png