The Adhoc Thinker

The New Economy Heralds the  Return of Taylorism Given that the net has proven to be a superb tool for comparing consumer prices and obtaining cheaper products and services it, perhaps, should not be a surprise that the hidden costs of some of the fast growing businesses in the world amount to a return to Taylorsim as the people management norm. As I have noted elsewhere previously, this may be dressed up as talent management, but for the average employee it means low paid insecure employment, with exhausting targets, overbearing managers and pressure to conform to company policies. Amazon, SportsDirect, RyanAir, Tesco and others have all come under intense media scrutiny for their employment practices. Ryanair, it seems runs league tables for pilots fuel loading, employs over 70% of pilots on zero hours contracts, makes ground and stewarding staff pay for their own uniforms and drinks (at airport prices). Whilst Channel 4s Dispatches reports pilots feeling under press