In January 2000, the London Underground trains carried an advertisement that captures the ambiguity in the employment relationship at the turn of the millennium. The ad, for a leading employment placement agency, pictures a rumpled T-shirt on which appears the slogan “I'm only here for the beer money.” Next to the shirt is the following text:

From the vantage point of the past hundred years, this ad reeks with irony. A “career” involving three days a week? “Commitment” when you are only working for the money? While the ad gives its blessing to this what-me-worry, airhead type of worker, it also speaks of mutual obligations between employer and employee. It says there's nothing wrong with remaining uninvolved so long as there's something in it for your employer. Therein lies the irony. How can this three-day-a-week, six months off at a time, beer-drinking, daydreaming employee have something to offer an employer? Clearly the mutual expectations of the employment relationship have undergone a profound transformation.