An open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Mr. Carney,
We’ve never met — but our lives intersect in quieter ways.
You study systems.
I live inside their outcomes.
I’m a Canadian in my early thirties with an honours degree, years of work experience, and a résumé that looks fine on paper. Yet despite doing everything we were told would lead to stability, I recently found myself earning less than minimum wage in practice — not because I wasn’t working, but because modern employment quietly transferred business risk onto my life.
This piece isn’t about one company or one job.
It’s about the structure that now defines work in this country — where flexibility protects businesses, instability burdens workers, and survival is mistaken for failure.
I’m writing not to assign blame, but to document reality.
Because if this system was designed by economists, then it deserves to be examined by them too.
There’s a comforting idea people cling to when work becomes unbearable:
That something has gone wrong.
That the economy is “broken.”
That employers are “confused.”
That the system is malfunctioning.
But the truth is more unsettling.
Modern work isn’t broken.
It’s working exactly as designed.
The Design Shift No One Talks About
Work used to serve one central purpose: stability.
A job was meant to provide predictable income, predictable hours, and enough security for someone to plan a life — rent, food, family, rest.
That was the social contract.
Over the past two decades, that contract quietly changed.
Not through one law.
Not through one company.
Not through one crisis.
But through a slow redesign of where risk lives.
Risk was once carried primarily by businesses.
Today, it has been transferred — deliberately and systematically — onto workers.
What Businesses Are Now Protected From
Modern employment structures insulate companies from nearly every form of uncertainty:
- fluctuations in demand
- seasonal slowdowns
- payroll obligations
- benefit costs
- long-term staffing commitments
Instead of absorbing instability, businesses now outsource it.
To you.
Through:
- short-term contracts
- part-time hours
- “casual” employment
- gig structures
- capped travel compensation
- on-call availability
- variable scheduling
The company remains agile.
The worker remains anxious.
The Illusion of Flexibility
We are told this is flexibility.
But flexibility only benefits the party with power.
When schedules change weekly…
when income varies month to month…
when availability must remain open “just in case”…
That is not freedom.
That is instability disguised as choice.
You can’t plan a life around “maybe.”
You can’t budget with fluctuating hours.
You can’t rest when work might text you at any moment.
And yet this has become the norm.
Why Part-Time Work Is So Destabilizing
Part-time work is often presented as lighter.
In practice, it is heavier.
Part-time roles frequently demand:
- full-time availability
- constant communication
- unpaid meetings
- emotional engagement
- schedule flexibility without guarantee
All while providing:
- partial income
- no benefits
- no security
- no upward mobility
Workers are expected to commit as though employed full-time — without receiving full-time protection.
It is one of the most efficient risk-transfer tools modern businesses use.
“Team Culture” as Unpaid Labor
This same logic appears in subtler places.
Unpaid team dinners.
After-hours meetings.
Mandatory “bonding” events.
If attendance is noticed —
if absence is questioned —
if participation affects perception —
it is work.
Calling it culture does not make it voluntary.
It simply makes it unpaid.
The workday no longer ends when the shift does.
It follows workers home through group chats, calendars, and expectations of emotional availability.
Again — not a glitch.
A feature.
Why Everyone Feels Exhausted
People often ask:
Why are we so tired?
Why does work feel heavier even when hours haven’t increased?
Because exhaustion doesn’t come from effort alone.
It comes from uncertainty.
From never knowing:
- how much you’ll earn
- when you’ll work
- whether next month is safe
- whether saying no is allowed
The human nervous system was not built for permanent unpredictability.
Yet unpredictability is now the foundation of modern employment.
The Rise of “Entrepreneurship” Isn’t a Trend
People didn’t suddenly become obsessed with side hustles.
They adapted.
When employment stopped providing stability, people sought control.
If workers are already absorbing the risk — transportation, scheduling, equipment, income fluctuation — then ownership becomes the only remaining protection.
Entrepreneurship didn’t rise out of ambition.
It rose out of survival.
The Cost We Don’t Measure
We measure productivity.
We measure profits.
We measure growth.
But we don’t measure:
- anxiety disorders tied to income instability
- delayed family formation
- chronic burnout
- decision paralysis
- the quiet shame of “working but still struggling”
When people internalize systemic instability as personal failure, the system no longer needs enforcement.
People police themselves.
This Is Why It Feels Personal
Because it is.
Not due to individual employers being cruel — though some are.
But because the entire structure now exists to answer one question:
How can businesses remain profitable without absorbing risk?
And the answer has been consistent:
Move the risk downward.
Onto workers.
Onto consumers.
Onto anyone without leverage.
The Truth Beneath the Language
Modern work isn’t malfunctioning.
It isn’t chaotic.
It isn’t confused.
It is precise.
It protects businesses from uncertainty while requiring workers to live inside it.
Once you see that, the exhaustion makes sense.
You were never failing.
You were navigating a system designed to keep you unstable.
Broken systems malfunction. This one is functioning exactly as intended.