#121: Zeynep Ton — Author of “The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work,” Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management

Don’t believe the jobs reports: it’s a tough labor market out there, and not in the way you’re thinking. 44% of workers have what’s considered a bad job, which is defined as a high risk, low wage position. The majority of these jobs are frontline, hourly positions, with little to no consistency or benefits. These organizations have some of the highest turnover rates, costing the U.S. economy 1 Trillion dollars per year. 

This is where today’s guest Zeynep Ton has set her sights on fixing. Zeynep is a professor of the practice in the operations management group at MIT Sloan School of Management and president of the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute, whose mission is to help companies thrive by creating good jobs and to redefine what it means to run a successful business.

Her organization has advised the likes of Quest Diagnostics, Mud Bay, and many more. Zeynep’s work and research on the benefits of supporting good jobs has been featured in publications like The Atlantic, the New York Times, and more, culminating in her book, “The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits”.

We wanted to catch up with Zeynep to hear first hand about why it’s important to design good jobs for workers, and how it benefits everyone from the top to bottom of an organization. This is another one you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!