Study finds biotech workers ‘thrive’ on instability

Marked by job insecurity, dependence on changing technology, and uncertain financing, the biotechnology industry is viewed by researchers as one of the best examples of the workplace of the future. A study by the Radcliffe Public Policy Center (RPPC) released in December 1999 found that biotech workers were actually thriving in this highly unstable environment. “The challenges biotech workers are mastering today will be the ones most workers will struggle with in the next millennium,” said Paula Rayman, director of RPPC and principal investigator in the study. “In the workplace of the future, employees will have to re-invent the concept of a safety net. In biotech, we found workers were changing their attitudes and focusing less on job security than career durability. They hopscotch from one biotech company to another, carrying their skills like turtles on their back.”