Revisting Handy's Shamrock

A while ago, I read a POV the blue collar, industrial economy was gone in the blink of an eye in the annals of history as most of the West moved from agrarian to white collar economies. I would like to suggest the white collar economy lasted even less.

We pine for the white collar jobs that our parents, and may be our grandparents enjoyed. When I read this NY Times story on men who give up because there is no stability, when I read this InfoWorld article where people breathe easier when they get a "permanent job", when I see Indian vendors fret over 25% staff turnover, I think it is time to re-read Charles Handy's 1989 management classic "The End of Unreason"

17 years ago, he predicted we were moving to a shamrock organization. His three leaves represented a core workforce, a contractual leaf and the flexible work force leaf. But even today we hope he was wrong.

Would I like to be a salaryman at a large organization? Some days I long for a steady pay check. I miss the trappings of corporate life. Then I look at my clients in the "core" of large companies  - the endless meetings, the drowning email, the politics. And I say I am happier with my firm being in the second leaf. We add value - we get paid. In fact, we have to add a lot of value to get paid. They in turn long to be entrepreneurs. There is no better "dignity" in being in one leaf or another.

I wrote a few weeks ago about "micro-multinationals' sprouting up. It is a sure sign we have moved away from the white collar to the polo, the mandarin and Nehru collar economy. Time to start talking about four leaf clovers and five leaf akebias, not keep hoping we can go back to the single leaf model.