Flex-Work: An Alternative to the Conventional Full Time Grind

New opportunities may occasionally arise amidst a bad economy. But one problem job seekers often share lately is that employers are afraid to hire on conventional full-time staff for fear the economy may crash tomorrow. Or maybe they need someone to be flexible about showing up to work. For instance, they need someone not quite full-time, but flexible enough to scale their work hours up and down as the company sees fit.

In short, they need a flex worker.

Flex Work

If you have this kind of flexibility, it's time to whip out your arsenal of alternative work methods and talk them over with your prospective employer. Among the options are:

- Offer To Work Part-time - You can mitigate your prospect's risk by lowering your impact on their labor budget buy offering to work part time. Assuming you work well during the short time you're there, the productivity you bring will more than make up for what they expend in paying you to be there.

- Offer To Work Only For One Week - Another "try-before-you-buy" scenario is to offer working for one week or other short-term period. Going in with this method, they know the most they will have to shell out will be one week's worth of pay. In reality, assuming you do well, they may very well ask you to just stay on indefinitely. Welcome to your new job!

- Volunteer - If the above doesn't work, then perhaps more drastic measures will have to do the trick. Some employers may be open to the idea of trying you on for size - for free! You might or might not be willing to do this, all depending on how badly you want this job. Some employers may shy away from this entirely on the premise you might injure yourself on the job, or that you would sue them for work without compensation.

- Contract / On Call - Perhaps this employer doesn't need the extra help just now. Or maybe they know they'll need you for sure, but only if you work for them as a short-term or on-call contractor. Offer to be there for them where they have surges in productivity, when one too many colleagues call in sick, or if they encounter a problem they've never seen before. You could be their "fix it" consultant.

- Work via Agency - Some employers may be willing to hire you on, but only if their risks are mitigated by hiring you through a familiar channel, such as a work agency they've done business with before. Larger corporations seem to follow this bill, and frequently the only way to get your shoe in the door is through formally approved channels. While walking this path may pay less than working directly for them, be prepared to try this route to get in the door.

- Hire on for Reduced Pay / Limited Responsibility - While this may sound convoluted, perhaps you may engage an employer to hire you on at a significantly reduced pay assuming your work tasks are clearly defined and clearly limited. But beware! Assuming most employers will try their best to squeeze every living drop of blood from a stone, be careful while walking this route. What you shook hands on versus what they have you do may differ like night and day.

- Planned Short-Term / Seasonal - Some employers are subject to surges in seasonal production. An example of this in the products industry would be work in picking fruit. A real-life scenario for the service industry would be in a CPA or tax preparer's office during tax season. If your aim is to work with them for the long-term, start early at talking with them about how to keep you on as a sales associate when the tax season rolls down. Perhaps you could drum in more than enough revenue to support your extended stay there. Welcome to your new job!

Flexible To Your Liking

Once you get the boss warmed up to a flexible work scenario, you may eventually end up with a job of a very unconventional kind.

Surprisingly enough, you may also land full-time work with them anyway, or flexible part-time work that gives you enough free space to develop yourself elsewhere. You could look for a different job elsewhere, or another job that is likewise flexible for filling in your free time, or... You get the idea!

Good luck, and happy flex working!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Melendez is a freelance writer reporting on technology, the environment, sustainability, alternative energies and "green" issues. John Melendez is a writer for hire. To email him, go to

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