The Uberisation of Employment | By Chris Mumford

My father worked for the Midland Bank (better known today as HSBC) for 33 years. His brother, too, had been employed by the same bank. In addition, their father had similarly spent the majority of his professional life at Midland. Their respective generations were of a time when you picked a profession and, if you were lucky enough to be offered a job, you then dedicated your working life to one company until you reached retirement age. Such relationships between employer and employee engendered feelings of pride, security, familiarity and loyalty. It was not a model however that necessarily lead to high performance, and the latter quarter of the 20th century saw a swing towards greater acceptance of people moving from company to company as firms competed for talent. This shift in people’s notion of what employment means to them has been going through further radicalisation in recent years as the concept of working for oneself has gained traction and credibility.