New Job–Day Two

Not that there is really anything to report.  So far it’s what I expected.  This is a seasonal position with a small chance of going long term (48 weeks or so).  The training so far has been the normal combination of cheerleading and thou shalt nots, including an NDA.  The most irritating part is that since I have to be at work by 7 I , of course, could not fall asleep until 1.  I tried I just couldn’t do it. 

Since I am talking about this job let me link it to something I read on Instapundit yesterday. 

The explanation behind temporary job creation is pretty simple: uncertainty. Companies don’t want to make longer-term commitments if they don’t know what the next couple of years will look like. New regulations are being imposed on companies, be it health care, finance, the environment, and the other areas. And the exact form and extent of these regulations still have to be determined by regulators.

Many small companies don't even know what tax rates they will face after the beginning of the year. Neither the president nor the Democratically controlled congress attempted to prevent income tax rates from rising for even the middle class until just a few weeks before they were expected to rise.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/12/13/recovery-like/#ixzz185llU1B9

I am not an economist, but let me be the first to say “Bulls**t!” While taxes may be helping to hold back economic growth the real hinderance is companies have found out that it’s cheaper to hire temporary workers and retrain every 48 weeks than it is to hire permanent employees.  There are no benefit costs, costs associated with maintaining human resource departments are lower, less chance of unionization etc. etc.  The bit about taxes is an excuse to justify sitting on profits and not hiring.  In some cases it goes so far as to say that if you want holidays (i.e. Christmas, 4th of July, etc.)  off  you have to take a reduced pay rate.  On the other hand there have been much hire rates of job growth during period of much higher tax rates, and it isn’t like companies don’t have money to hire.  The balance sheets show they are sitting on cash that could be used to hire, which would then help with the economic recovery.

The companies are of course within their rights to make and enforce such hiring policies, and I as an employee can either take or leave the jobs.  It’s an open marketplace, and I support the companies rights to maximize their profits,  but let’s at least be honest about why all the job growth is in temp jobs.