The New Work Force

In The Age of Unreason (Harvard Business School Press, 1990), Charles Handy says that by the start of the 21st century the "core worker will have a harder but shorter job, with more people leaving full-time employment in their late forties or early fifties. . . . " He goes on: "Most people will find their place outside the organization, selling their time or their services into it.

" . . . For them the pattern of hours will be different. They may find themselves working 25 hours a week for 45 weeks of the year (part-time) or 45 hours a week for 25 weeks a year (temporary). In either case they will need to keep on working as long as they can . . . because they will not be able to accumulate the savings through pension schemes or other mechanisms to live on."