Have you shared someone else's celebration? Have you experienced the celebration of another culture or invited colleagues from different cultures to share yours? Sharing celebrations is a wonderful way of respecting others and making them feel welcome. In this brief "flash learning" I suggest a couple of ways of bringing inclusion to the holidays year-round. 

Take yourself back to the days in which you were offered your most important jobs. How did you feel? You were likely excited and hopeful, happy to have the opportunity to prove your own worth. You may also have been determined to not repeat any past mistakes or political faux pas.

For most of us, the first day at a new job may include a complex array of emotions - enthusiasm and fear, confidence mixed with a nagging feeling of "oh boy, what did I get myself into?" It is unlikely, however, that you would start a new job disengaged.

Engagement - a close connection between who we are and what we do - involves three main components: physical, cognitive, and emotional engagement.

• Physical engagement means the expenditure of energy on the task at hand.
• Cognitive engagement means directing our attention and focus to the job.
• Emotional engagement means feeling passionate about what we do.

Now, consider the following consequences of the above definitions:

• Exhausted people may not have any energy to give.
• People who are worried about personal problems, feel unsafe or feel unwanted may direct their attention to such problems rather than to the job.
• People whose jobs represent a poor fit are unlikely to feel passionate.

​Unfortunately, "stuff happens" at work. Maybe you were given more to do than you could handle. Maybe your energy was drained by lack of resources, excessive demands, and confusing requests. Maybe it felt unsafe to be you at work - you may have faced the pressure to pretend to act or feel like someone else. Finally, maybe you simply discovered that your job did not match your interests or capabilities.

My question today is: When did you become disengaged ... and why? Perhaps if we could understand the sources of disengagement, we could:

• Better prepare and inform our managers 
• Build a stronger community 
• Focus on better selection and career development processes

​When did you lose "the light in your eyes"? Can you tell us about it? A disclaimer: You may want to share experiences from days gone by, rather than your current experiences. Remember that anything posted online tends to stay there.

According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) about 70 percent of U.S. professors are not in a "tenure" line. Of these, about 40 percent are adjunct or part-time faculty members. Sure, many may choose to work as adjunct faculty. Those who adjunct by choice are likely to be experienced professionals in other fields, holding full-time jobs elsewhere or leading their own businesses.  Not all adjunct faculty, however,  do so by choice. Many have not been able to locate academic employment and see themselves falling behind in academic studies (see Glenn, 2016). They have no benefits or job security and often receive low pay.

The problem is not limited to universities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2017, 5.9 million people held temporary jobs in the US in 2017. Sure, this number represents a relatively small percentage of US workers (3.8 percent). Other workers, however, report "alternative work arrangements" including contract work (10.6 million or 6.9 percent), on-call (2.6 million or 1.7 percent), workers employed by temporary help agencies (1.4 million or 0.9 percent) and 933,000 (0.6 percent) workers employed by contractor firms. And, while most contractors choose to work independently (about 80 percent), most workers from the other alternative categories do not.

My question, today, is: What are the consequences of non-traditional and contingent work arrangements on the remaining employees and for the organization? I can think of several potential impact areas:

1. Collaboration:  Contingency workers may not participate in team discussions and decisions with the remainder of the team.
2. History: As contingency workers leave, they take with them valuable experiences.
3. Engagement: Contingency workers could be less engaged than traditional workers.

For item three, note the emphasis on the word "could."  According to William Kahn, engagement relates to one's feelings of safety. A contingent worker could experience less safety, knowing that he or she could easily be let go. The story, however, is complicated, as contingency workers are quite diverse. The Gallup Organization found that while independent contractors are more engaged than the general population, on-call, temporary, and contractor organization workers are not (only 19% of these workers are engaged). 

My final point: Both in and outside Academia, having a certain percentage of contingency workers may make sense.  In Academia, experienced professionals could bring "real life" and practical examples to the classroom.  Outside universities, independent contractors could bring to their client organizations special expertise and outsider perspectives. At the very least, however, the issue deserves thoughtful debate. 

What have your experiences been with contingent and non-traditional work? Please share!