Risky Business - the New Norm?

Maureen and I live on the 20th floor of a high-rise condo in Toronto. Visible from our west balcony is Beverly Glen Junior Public School situated in a large green park and fronted by a quiet side street. Every morning and mid-afternoon that street is bumper-to-bumper with cars delivering or collecting the eager young students.  Every time I view this phenomena I ask myself why? I don't deny that living in a big city poses its own special dangers. But on the other hand, most agree that learning to take risks is an essential part of growing up.

Remember when we were kids someone would say, 'I dare you ...'. We actually did some rather stupid things in order to save face among our peers. But we also learned to have a sense of confidence in ourselves.

Not only kids play 'dare', but adults as well. When you went into the boss's office to ask for a raise, or changed the direction of your career, or accepted a job you were not sure you could deliver on, jumped into a 37' sailboat and crossed the North Atlantic or skied the back trails at Lake Louise the day they were blasting down the potential avalanches -  you were taking a risk! Remember last year, when George H. Bush, who uses a wheelchair to get around, celebrated his 90th birthday by skydiving out of a helicopter!

Some of the words we often used to describe these adventures are, risky, dangerous and even precarious. Today 'Precarious' has found a whole new meaning within the job market. In fact, almost 45% of the jobs in the Greater Toronto area are now labeled Precarious Employment! Why? Because they are non-standard, risky, insecure, unprotected, poor pay, part time, self employ or home based.

Standard employment, at least for MEN, emerged after the Second World War. Standard meaning full-time, with benefits, security and often potential for growth. Today many firms are looking to cut costs and plan to increase the use of  'contingent, outsourced, contract or part-time workers'. Even thirty Federal government departments and agencies have used unpaid interns the last few years,

and very few were hired later for paying jobs! (Globe and Mail -January 2015)

Google Images

Our politicians have been insisting, for example, on how they are going to produce large numbers of full-time manufacturing jobs if elected! But, fabrication plants (fabs), rows and rows of machines in windowless rooms with hardly any human workers, are beginning to take hold. What comes next is the Internet of Things, where physical objects are embedded with electronics to talk to each other in these factories. This is why many are saying the basic fundamentals of coding is becoming the new literacy. On the other hand a report done by the Toronto Dominion Bank suggests that as the economy improves Precarious Employment should decline.

I know what it is like to lose a job and to settle for a contractual position. In my case the contract was a bonus because it provided me with a living while I searched for standard employment. The risk was well worth taking. But the times 'they are a changing'.

As an octogenarian I don't take, or is it necessary to take, a lot of risks.  But now and again an opportunity presents itself and, well it might add a little excitement to the habits of everyday living!

Mel Brooks, the American film director, screenwriter, actor and producer once wrote. "If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy and colourful and lively."  And life itself, after all is one big risk and very precarious.  Our kids will have to learn this lesson sooner or later.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week

Did You Know?

Facebook and Google run an annual Hacker Cup competition and fly in computer-science-minded young people from around the world to compete for prizes and meet with Valley recruiters?