This article analyses the characteristics of the work process, forty years after the publication of Harry Braverman's book "Labor and Monopoly Capital: the Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century". The focus relies on flexibility, a characteristic increasingly expected from the workforce, in a globalized labor market that moves at e-speed. Generalizing flexibility restricts the understanding of its uses in the processes and in labor relations. Therefore, two different ways of flexibility are examined: (1) in the workshop, with the introduction of multi-tasking, teamwork, the need for increased qualification and quality control; (2) the use of atypical job contracts. The two ways are made plain by two researches carried out in specific periods and contexts. The first one was a research in the industries of Rio Grande do Sul, during the productive re-structuring of the nineties. The second, by the introduction of atypical contracts in Italy after 2000. The latter is based on statements of Italian workers in a national enquiry made with a blog and carried out by a leading newspaper over the flexibility of job contracts. The choice for examining different moments of flexibility implementation comes from the belief that there is a use deepening of this productive strategy, with consequences on work and workers. Some questions raised already in previous researches come back in this article. The main issue is the impacts of flexibility in labor relations since the beginning of its implementation.
Flexibility; Labor process; Labor relations; Atypical contracts.