Joel Kotkin says that more Americans are staying put than at anytime since the Second World War -- and that that's a good thing. You're thinking, "Well, duh; if nobody's hiring, people aren't going to be able to move." Kotkin counters that the staying-in-place trend started before the recession hit. He adds:
Our less mobile nature is already reshaping the corporate world. The kind of corporate nomadism described in Peter Kilborn's recent book, Next Stop, Reloville: Life Inside America's Rootless Professional Class, in which families relocate every couple of years so the breadwinner can reach the next rung on the managerial ladder, will become less common in years ahead. A smaller cadre of corporate executives may still move from place to place, but surveys reveal many executives are now unwilling to move even for a good promotion. Why? Family and technology are two key factors working against nomadism, in the workplace and elsewhere.Family, as one Pew researcher notes, "trumps money when people make decisions about where to live." Interdependence is replacing independence. More parents are helping their children financially well into their 30s and 40s; the numbers of "boomerang kids" moving back home with their parents, has also been growing as job options and the ability to buy houses has decreased for the young. Recent surveys of the emerging millennial generation suggest this family-centric focus will last well into the coming decades.
Nothing allows for geographic choice more than the ability to work at home. By 2015, suggests demographer Wendell Cox, there will be more people working electronically at home full time than taking mass transit, making it the largest potential source of energy savings on transportation. In the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, almost one in 10 workers is a part-time telecommuter. Some studies indicate that more than one quarter of the U.S. workforce could eventually participate in this new work pattern. Even IBM, whose initials were once jokingly said to stand for "I've Been Moved," has changed its approach. Roughly 40 percent of the company's workers now labor at home or remotely from a client's location.
These home-based workers become critical to the localist economy. They will eat in local restaurants, attend fairs and festivals, take their kids to soccer practices, ballet lessons, or religious youth-group meetings. This is not merely a suburban phenomenon; localism also means a stronger sense of identity for urban neighborhoods as well as smaller towns.
[H/T: Reader Sarah Sheldon]
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"These home-based workers become critical to the localist economy. They will eat in local restaurants, attend fairs and festivals, take their kids to soccer practices, ballet lessons, or religious youth-group meetings. This is not merely a suburban phenomenon; localism also means a stronger sense of identity for urban neighborhoods as well as smaller towns."
So wait, you're saying the Internet is going to have a beneficial social effect? Sounds good to me!
I want no part of working from home. If one can do the job from home, the job can be done in China for a fraction of the wages paid in the US. I'll stay in the IT field, working in networking where someone has to be on site when a circuit goes down.
Re: If one can do the job from home, the job can be done in China for a fraction of the wages paid in the US.
That's not really true. There's a pretty major issue with language, culture and time zones that often cause scatter-shot outsourcing of work abroad to fail. I've seen this firsthand. Very large companies that can locate an entire facility abroad, with American managers, can make this work, but just contracting with a few Indians or Chinese to do some work, is a quick route to gumming up the works and losing a wad of money.
Re: most, though, will be clerical/accounting, sales, media and IT people paid low flat rates and getting no bennies.
The more skilled among the above may end up forming guild-like associations and gain better pay and benefits by that mechanism.
"I want no part of working from home. If one can do the job from home, the job can be done in China for a fraction of the wages paid in the US. I'll stay in the IT field, working in networking where someone has to be on site when a circuit goes down."
Jimmy
October 28, 2009 8:02 PM
Not true, Jimmy. I've been working from home for years, as the editor of a free weekly publication in Beaufort County, SC. We cover everything from the resort community of Hilton Head to the military base at Parris Island to tourist-driven, historic downtown Beaufort. We do local features, cover local personalities, review local restaurants and arts events, provide a comprehensive calendar, etc... We have a small office downtown, but it's mainly a place for our sales people to rest their weary feet. Our designer, bookkeeper, contributing writers, and editor (that's me) all work from home. But we all live here; we know the place we're covering, know our readers, know our advertisers, etc. It's truly a small, local business. And we're doing okay. But we couldn't do it from China, that's for sure!
But watch out for more Blackberry Dads at those soccer games. You've probably seen them. Their kid could have scored a Grand Slam Touchdown Field Goal from the 4-point line to win the Super Series World Bowl Championship, but they're too busy to notice. They just HAVE to respond to the e-mail chain conerning the schedule of meetings about the meeting schedule for the upcoming e-conference on Virtualization. "He's a real Nowhere Man. Sitting In his Nowhere Land..."
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