This weekend we visited the See Museum in Manchester, NH. It’s an excellent hands-on science museum for the intellectually curious — of any age. In addition, they had an amazingly large LEGO model of an old mill. Up here in the Northeast, the economy of the early 20th century was dominated by the large mills producing cloth, shoes and machinery.  By the 1930’s through the 60’s, labor and raw materials became cheaper elsewhere.  The mills went out of business, stranding thousands of workers, shuttering hundreds of enormous buildings, and devastating the economies of many small towns. (Sound familiar, GM?)  Only in the last decade or two have these buildings found new life as artists’ lofts, small business incubators, and educational space.

While I enjoyed the mill model, what really caught my eye was one of the interpretive placards along the mill model that talked about employee benefits.  In the beginning, the mills brought in employees from other towns or other countries, since it took many hands to operate the vast machinery.  Eventually the labor force stratified and segmented by specialty.  As more mills grew and competed, operating margins shrank, and the relationship between management and labor grew strained.  (This really is an understatement — many fine books have been written about these troubled times.)

Management realized that it could entice good workers to stay by offering benefits that their competitors didn’t — things like Sundays off, a minimum wage, a reduced work week of only 54 hours, and access to recreational activities.  We take all these (and more) for granted today, and many of these benefits have been nationally standardized by the federal government.

Today, the pendulum is swinging back.  No longer does the employer offer much incentive, other than a paycheck, for your effort.  The current economic crisis has given companies the excuse to pare back, and only time will tell if the frozen benefits will ever be thawed and restored.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the employee.  It makes it much easier to calculate what you’re actually worth to your curent employer and to evaluate other employment offers that might happen along.  In the “new” economy, employment fluidity can be liberating for both the employer and the employee.  It does put more of a burden on the employee to keep your skills up to date, to remain employable, and to be a bit creative, but isn’t that better than being chained to a desk for 30 years with only a gold watch and a handshake at the end of the tunnel?

The one benefit that tends to tie us to our employers is health insurance.  Sure, you can change jobs and get new coverage (probably), but you may have to change to a new plan that doesn’t include your favorite medical provider.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could choose a plan and stay with it, even if you changed jobs?  Employers could either help defray the cost with a contribution or just pay you a bit more so that you could pay for it yourself.  I hope this becomes part of the national debate on revamping the health-care system.  Many folks stay chained to their desk just to keep health insurance, dampening the entrepreneurial spirit.  Wouldn’t it be liberating to know that you could change jobs — or create your own job — without jeopardizing your ability to provide quality health care to your family.

What keeps you at your current job?