Happy holidays, workers of the world! It's that joyous time of year when workplaces resemble the joke about Russian factory workers: "We pretend to work, and the bosses pretend to pay us."

Alas, for those without secure employment, that's not funny.

Recall the old social contract regarding work: A person started his career as an enthusiastic young person who overperformed and was undercompensated for it. That was acceptable because, over the next 35 years, he rose to a position where he could underperform and be overcompensated. It all evened out over the lifetime.

This caricature of secure employment is now just another joke. That industrial-era bargain is going, going, gone. See General Motors' big reductions in employee health insurance, while its suppliers seek wage cuts of as much as two-thirds.

The old industrial-era system assumed fixed employment, not mobility, with education and training primarily associated with promotion (and college tuition deductible only if improving skills in the present job). That system gave us employer-funded health insurance and pensions — benefits that were lost if the employee left. That era also produced legal definitions of full-time, part-time and overtime that seem quaint when work can occur anytime, anywhere linked by communications networks.

Today, people have been cut loose. For some, this is liberation from indentured servitude; they set their own terms of work as self-employed "free agents." But most are simply adrift.

For well over a decade, some companies have tried to make people a "variable cost" rather than a fixed obligation by converting employees into independent contractors without benefits. The term "outsourcing" originally referred not to shifting jobs to China and India but to replacing permanent employees with temporary ones on someone else's payroll. In the 1990s, the temporary-staffing industry accounted for 10 percent of all U.S. job growth, despite accounting for only about 2 percent of total jobs, an MIT economist found. In 2000, Microsoft settled a lawsuit by "permatemps" (who claimed they were indistinguishable from regular employees) for $97 million, ending a dispute that started in 1992.

Demographic changes pose a further challenge. If you've missed the media hype, baby boomers start to turn 60 on Jan. 1. Surveys show that a high proportion of them want to keep working, perhaps at a new career, perhaps community service, but with time for leisure or grandchildren.

Social policies and organizational practices have not fully dealt with new realities. America needs creative ideas that are good for people and for the future of a dynamic economy:

Health care. Instead of demanding more from employers, including squeezing small businesses as some states propose, let's work toward universal tax-supported health-care coverage. A Gallup poll shows that 79 percent of Americans want it, and 69 percent are willing to pay for it with higher taxes.

Lifelong learning. Imagine a GI Bill for veterans of industry wars to pay for college after they suffer from corporate restructuring. Or Pell Grants (designed for young college students) extended to retirees who want education for a new career. Higher education builds skills that build the economy.

Savings. It's time for portable tax-advantaged savings accounts accessible at times of greatest need and matched by low-interest loans as well as employer contributions. People could draw funds when the family is growing, or for education when changing fields, without losing tax advantages. This would supplement, not replace, Social Security.

Work time. Some people have flexible work hours. Why not extend this and add flexible work years? Parents of young children might want months off during their kids' summer vacation. Mature workers might want months off during the cold winter season. Internet auctions could be used to match them, inside a company or across. Continental Airlines' Web site enabling flight attendants to trade schedules is a useful model.

What are your own needs, preferences and ideas? Whether you're burdened by end-of-year deadlines or pretending to work between holiday preparations, take a moment to e-mail me about your situation. A national dialogue about the future of work could produce the holiday gift that keeps giving.