My contemporary labor mantra is that we no longer manage our careers one job at a time.  We manage our careers one project or even one hour at a time.

From an entrepreneur’s or small business owner’s perspective, I often view an FTE (“full time equivalent” job opening) as possibly being filled by 2, 3 or sometimes even 4 different people working less than full time for me.  When your company has a dozen employees, give or take …a dozen, then each decision regarding labor is super critical and has significant ramifications.  Often, labor makes up a dominant portion of our entire budget.

Understanding the trends in the labor market and the trends in building and managing our own teams – including our interns, freelancers, contractors, full time employees, part time employees and advisors – is what we intend to convey in this Labor Trends section.  Some of our company’s greatest resources leave the office every night (ok, maybe some of us don’t have offices or pull all-nighters leading up to a big business event, but you get what I mean!).  We must always be cognizant of this fact and appreciate what it means – and what it takes to keep our teams cohesive and productive.