Flexitimers featured in an article in the Sunday Times yesterday about the growing trend towards portfolio careers i.e. people working on several projects at the same time rather than a full time position with just one company. And the trend is growing hence the new term 'giganomics' where 'professionals rely on series of 'gigs' to make a living'. The concept is not brand new as management guru Charles Handy wrote about this almost 20 years ago. In fact, one of his books The Elephant and the Flea, was a huge inspiration to us when setting up Flexitimers. We believe the focus will be on Income rather jobs, because realistically those full time permanent positions are in short supplya and today more than ever we need to think and work outside the box to keep a career alive, so start buidling that portfolio career as it may be the only option for the short term.

Labels: flexible work, Flexitimers, jobs, Media Coverage, part-time work, smart work, work life balance

Came across a report titled 'Working 5 to 9' published by Enterprise Nation in the UK and it presents some very interesting findings for anyone feeling the pinch these days. Highlights include:
Over 5 million people are earning some form of income from home
Peak hours for accessing the web are from 5 to 11 pm
Over 1/3 of registrations a freelance sites are from 5-9ers
Home based businesses such as ebay sellers are on the serious up

The guide provides tips and anecdotes for anyone thinking of taking the leap and starting a home based business. And the really good news is that almost 3/4 of respondents are considering leaving their full-time/part-time jobs to focus on their business, that's a pretty good sign. So go on, take the leap and download the guide and see where it takes you.

Labels: flexible work, jobs, part-time work, self-employed, smart work

Flexitimers attended the Big Debate in City Hall last Wednesday and were fortunate to put a question to the panel. The panel, which was chaired by by respected broadcaster John Bowman, consisted of Jay Bourke (Cafe Bar Deli), Martin Murray (Interactive Return), Brian Carey (Sunday Times), Marc Coleman (Newstalk), Mark Fielding from ISME, Damian Young Head of Small Business, Bank of Ireland, Paula Fitzsimons, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor author and Pat Lynch, Chairperson of Dublin City Enterprise Board.

Q: Did the panel think that companies (under pressure to cut headcount) were more likely to outsource activities or use part-time, freelance and contract staff in order to remain competitive during these challenging times?

Summary: there was unanimous agreement that companies must outsource and use flexible staff to stay in business.

Quotes:
Marc Coleman - 'there is no doubt, no option that companies will have to outsource / use agency staff'

Pat Lynch 'your largest overheads walk in to your company on two feet....businesses must control these costs', 'It (outsourcing and using flexible staff) is a good business strategy'

Jay Bourke - If you're not letting people go, you'll go out of business, outsource right away'

Brian Carey 'It's a growing trend in Irish businesses'

This is good news for Flexitimers and particularly good news for freelancers, part timers and contractors out there who can now rest assured that more interesting projects and positions will be coming down the pipeline. Flexitimers offers part timers, freelancers and contractors access to skilled part time, contract and freelance positions and projects.

Labels: contracting, flexible work, Flexitimers, jobs, smart work, work

An article called 'Seeing the bigger picture' in the Independent made an interesting case for using career coaches to assist with dealing with change in the 21st century. We all know that the 'job for life' is largely a thing of the past and that's not just to do with the recession but it's more to do with our generation's career promiscuity. We prefer to shop around and indeed move around - upsizing our career prospects with strategic moves every couple of years. However, we're now seeing a very definite move towards outsourcing which will have a profound impact on the traditional employee. Maybe the next opportunity will be contract or freelance - something that exploits your skill set but to a very tight and specific brief. Anyway the article is about using a career coach to identify what you want, why you want it and how to manage your career - worth a read. Times are changing and chance favours the prepared.

Labels: contracting, flexible work, jobs, part-time work, smart work, work

An article caught my eye in Friday's Irish Times about the CEO Forum that takes place this week in Dublin. CEOs from some of Ireland's largest companies are meeting to discuss how to operate in challenging times ahead.

A comment by Brian Long, chief executive of venture capital firm Atlantic Bridge struck me as relevant to Flexitimers "during periods of recession, opportunities tend to open up in the outsourcing space as large corporations pare back, reduce their workforce and then realise that they don't have the "bandwidth" to carry out certain activities such as the development of non-core products. This creates opportunities for smaller players to step in and offer their services". This is also the case for freelancers, contractors and anyone offering themselves 'flexibly' to companies. Food for thought indeed.

Labels: contracting, flexible work, jobs, Recession, self-employed, small business, smart work, work

I read with interest about a new website that will promote working from home in the Sunday Business Post the other day. eWorkingIreland.com is the site and when I went into it on Sunday I met a static holding page without an email capture box, instead visitors were asked to email them to be notified of a live date. Well I went along a moment ago to see it is live (a redirect from Centrecom who are maintaining the site) and it's worth a visit. There are some basics like the benefits to eworkers and companies which most of us already know - no commute, less stress, more productivity and higher staff retention and so on. However, I did have a brief look at section on Studies, Report and White Papers and I have to say there's a lot of good content and case studies there. Definitely worth a look.

Labels: contracting, flexible work, part-time work, self-employed, smart work, work life balance

Flexitimers got a mention in yesterday's Irish Independent article (Is the supermum a thing of the past?) on the reality of combining a career with having children. 'Supermum' is no more according to research conducted by sociologists in Cambridge University. Apparently, you simply cannot have it all: time for a high-powered job, children, DH and an exciting social life. The study claims that an increasing number of people believe mums having careers comes at the expense of their children.
I remember having this same argument with my (then childless) sister and my point was that you could do both, but less competently than a childless career woman or a full time parent. Something has to give, there are only 24 hours in a day but it's not just simply down to time, I believe it's head space: if you're thinking about work work work all the time, then you're probably not going to pick up the subtle cues that parenting requires. Conversely if you're at work and constantly thinking of baby in creche (yes we've all done it), and I'm big enough to admit I didn't have the same fire in the belly that day. This doesn't mean that all childless people are high fliers and all stay-at-home parents are fantastic parents, of course it's down to the individual and their own levels of motivation, happiness, self-esteem etc.
I'm just saying from a personal point of view that I felt I had to chose one and I chose parenting - but that was nearly 10 years ago - a time before work-life balance and career flexibility.

Indeed that was before Flexitimers because since then I've realised you can have it all but you can only have one full-time permanent job (parenting) then outside of that you can fit in the part-time, freelance, contract and temp work and have the time and head space to do that really really well. So Cambridge University I'm afraid I disagree, working mums can have it all but you're presuming career is synonymous with full-time permanent work and all us Flexitimers out there know that's simply not the case. And everyone, even the dog on the street, knows that nobody can sustain 2 full time jobs at the same time!

So thanks Susan Daly for your kind mention and hopefully your readers will flock to Flexitimers and have it all too.
All the best
Joy

Labels: flexible work, smart work, Women and Work, work, work life balance