Hot skills for the new economy -women

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Hot skills for the new economy-womens learning
and identity in boundaryless work

• Tara Fenwick
• University of Alberta

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Boundaryless work

• Flexible employment where individuals contract
  their skills in a variety of contexts and
  self-employed arrangements
• boundaryless career (Arthur Rousseau, 1999)
• portfolio work (Gold Fraser, 2002 Cohen and
  Mallon, 1999 Sullivan, 1999)
• shape-shifting portfolio workers (Gee, 2000)

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In Canada . . .

• Temporary contract jobs in 2002 14.5 of
  Canadian workers (up from 11.6 in 1995)
• Self-employment in 2002 17.6 of Canadian
  workers (up from 10.9 in 1976)

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• Reading text
• Document use
• Numeracy
• Writing
• Oral communication
• Working with others
• Thinking skills
• Computer use
• Continuous learning

Essential Skills the fundamental
skills help people participate fully in the
workplace and community
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Tensions of boundaryless work

• Shifting subjectivities enterprising,
  self-regulating, adapting to flexible structures
  (insecure, fluid, subject to unpredictable
  consumer demand)
• Precarious supervisory abuse, unpaid overtime,
  termination without notice, exposure to health
  hazards, lower pay than full-time counterparts

• Professional work expansion crossing
  boundaries between organisations occupations
  risk and insecurity indeterminate knowledge
  isolation finding location (Fenwick, 2003
  Gold Fraser, 2002 Sullivan, 1999)

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Contrasting views of boundaryless work

• Liberatory - creativity, freedom
• Repressive - exploitive, damaging
• Portfolio workers own views distorted?
• (Smeaton, 2003)

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Nurses in boundaryless work

• My ten year old said to me the other day, You
  know mom, yours is an invisible job. (Cathy, 4.5
  yrs IP)
• I first started - there was tremendous
  resistance to it. Like I wasnt allowed to go
  into a hospital setting and do healing touch with
  a patient in the hospital. Now I can go and do
  that. Provided that the doctor is informed and
  has no difficulty and the head nurse has no
  difficulty with it. (Nancy, 20 yrs. IP)

My challenge was how could I get a patient to
pay me for my nursing knowledge? And the
hospitals . . . dont know how to contract with
us. They dont know any other billing practice
than pay them a salary. (Blair, 9 yrs IP)
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Adult educators in boundaryless work

• Its a constant battle. My tendency is to
  go-go-go, and then collapse. . . . You are hired
  for a deliverable, and its up to you how you get
  there. So thats the attraction and the curse.
  (Lana, 11 yrs IP)
• I have got more offers to teach or to write or
  to do contract research than I know what to do
  with. But I mean, theyre not well paid, and they
  dont allow me the time that I need to actually
  do the research. (Marion, 8 yrs, IP)

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Women, more than men . . .

• disadvantaged in open contract bidding
  negotiating
• the good contractor seduction
• (volunteer) extras
• client relationships - special obligations

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Contradictory desires

• Personal stability, boundaries defining self and
  work, long-lasting relationships
• Contingency - change, permeable boundaries,
  shifting relationships

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Hidden skills, hidden labour

• Being noticed
• Negotiating and renegotiating employment
  contracts
• Hiding anxiety and stress
• Shapeshifting while branding oneself
• Proving and reproving credibility

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Being noticed

• Figure out and adapt to what employer wants
• Distinguish self as unique, desirable
• Strategic involvement in visible tasks
• Walk the line - other employees

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Negotiating - and renegotiating contracts

• Every aspect - access to equipment, paymt
  schedules, fair timelines, what constitutes
  completed work
• Renegotiate boundaries - unpaid work arises
• Patience, assertion, teaching employers
• Administrative work?

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Hiding anxiety and stress

• Juggle uncertainty - income, tasks, schedule,
  will employer like me?
• Take everything --gt overwork
• Work while ill
• Appear calm, enthusiastic, cheerful
• Hide stress
• Hide other work - 100 for you

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Shapeshifting while branding oneself

• Reinvent self to become whatever is needed
• -image
• -skill
• -disposition
• BUT - have a specialized, distinct focus

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Proving, reproving credibility

• Youre only as good as your last contract
• Conventional paths (credentials, long-term
  experience) no longer useful
• Scrutinized constantly - no downtime
• Subjugate to employers notion of knowledge
• Start again, each contract

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Learning in boundaryless work

• These skills not recognized, valued, rewarded -
  even by contractors
• Learning to accept overload, no benefits
• Struggle in isolation
• Much worse - women of colour and new immigrants
  (networking)

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Short-term tactics

• Educate women to recognize and find vocabulary
  for these work activities (and skills)
• Educate women to negotiate contracts that include
  this labour
• Gather women to collectively develop minimal
  contract provisions
• Educate employers about their responsibilities/ben
  efits in better provision for women contractors