July 26, 2005 10:54 AM

Are you a lone ranger?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhartat 10:54 AM

An excellent report from MassInc's Commonwealth magazine explores the growing trend toward contract employment and the upside and downside for these workers, aka "lone rangers":

Over the past generation, the employer-employee bond has weakened even for those in standard employment settings, where downsizing has become commonplace and no job, from the shop floor to the management suite, comes with a lifetime guarantee. For others. . .it’s a new game entirely, with millions of Americans turned loose and now fending for themselves. Those in this category go by different names - consultants and contractors, temps and contingent workers - that conjure up very different images: They are either masters of their own universe or interchangeable inputs in a brutal new economic order. What they have in common is that, to a far greater degree than for those in the standard world of work, they are on their own.

(Note: to access this article and the MassInc site, one-time free registration is required.)