HRM 2006

 

In the last lecture of the module

On the world of work and employment

Jonathan poses the question:

‘Who wins, who loses?’ His aims

 are clear; his learning outcomes admirable.

 

He’s South African, emphatic.

Steeples his hands between Fordism

and Post-Fordism. Circles the air around

‘flexible- working’. Has an Hiroshima

of a day ahead, he tells me, so can’t do feedback.

 

Down the front of his crisp white shirt

dangles a Gustav Klimt tie:

post Art-Nouveau faces superimposed on silk

or so I reckon, from where I’m sitting

at the back. He made a real

 

effort of engagement at the start

but they weren’t having any. I want

to write ‘good tie’ in the box

about educational resources but settle

for the usual, ‘excellent Powerpoint slides’

 

which have kicked-up on a strange

lap-top: bullet-points rushed in from

the left, got themselves in tangles in a bid

for centre-stage. His text’s often

ahead of him but I get all this.

 

The hour-glass economy.

Top jobs/shit jobs. Bugger-all in the middle.

I sketch in the basics; keep him

in my head, comparing, contrasting,

with Steve yesterday, all chat

 

and challenging questions on disease-clusters

and bad air: micro to macro.

Who won, who lost? It’s complex

but we know the answer.  I plan a closer look

at that tie as I go out  but forget.