How do we actually want to live? This question is not only on the mind of young professionals, but also of that older generation that has always worked a lot and started realizing during the crisis – if not earlier – that a life spent predominantly in the office isn’t necessarily an extremely fulfilling one. “Since the 1970s, it has become somewhat unfashionable to have time on your hands,” writes journalist Claudia Voigt in the German Kulturspiegel magazine. “Those who had time on their hands were either old or lost since the days they were young.” We have been searching for happiness in our workplaces in vain and for too long. We have spent ten or twelve hours in the office, bending over backwards. “In this respect, the current economic crisis has something good about it,” says Voigt. “It is profound and world-shattering enough to suddenly make room for questions such as: How do we live? What is important to us and what are our values? How much longer is this supposed to go on? And: How do we actually want to live?”

Voigt makes an argument for ultra-flexible and, most notably, shorter working hours as smart ideas can be developed just as well in a 30-hour week. She pleads for going to the office only to work – not to drink coffee, read private e-mails, or download music from the Net. She rails against the requirement to be present permanently and to do overtime in executive positions. She likes the idea of trading money for time and of having the freedom to use that time as you like. Voigt’s article is important as it describes a connection between our new working reality, the economic crisis, and the search for meaning that I agree with: “How do we want to live? Lots of work and little time: For a long time, this was regarded as the only way to a successful existence, yet the crisis will change this – thank goodness.” Besides, this connection raises a question that I will try to answer in this book: “What will people do who already have stopped being present at the office around the clock?”

Welcome to the Meconomy

All of a sudden, issues such as the search for meaning or self-improvement during times of economic crisis seemed to dominate the cover pages of a wide variety of magazines. SZ Wissen, a science magazine published by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, sported the line “The Good Life – Alternatives to Career Mania” on its cover. The title of Germany’s Focus magazine was “Self-made Happiness,” followed by the subtitle “Germans discover the fun of taking their lives into their own hands.” In the same week, Junge Karriere, a Düsseldorf-based monthly business publication, demanded: “Reinvent Your Job!” Alluding to a well-known IKEA advertising slogan, the magazine asked its readers: “Do you still work or do you already have a life? Here’s how to realign your career – with or without a boss!” Something was happening here.

“In times of crisis, people start asking themselves again what is really important,” analyzed Süddeutsche Zeitung. According to the newspaper, people are trying to get out of a system that they considered devoid of meaning, while a new generation of social scientists is thinking about alternative models of society: “Where old certainties are shattered, people become increasingly willing to try something new.”

Munich-based sociologist Ulrich Beck even thinks that, in terms of new life concepts, there is a “tremendous need for reform – as was the case at the onset of industrialization.” Horst Opaschowski, scientific director of the Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen (Foundation for Future Studies) in Hamburg and consultant in economics and politics, seconds Beck’s point of view. To him, the global crisis is a “turning point” that can even be compared to the German student movement of the late 1960s. “Back then, there was the same sense of a new era.” Germany, says Opaschowski, is about to experience a period of renewal: “Visions for the future are no longer confused with new product visions. Germans want to find ways to the future that are inspired by entrepreneurial courage rather than by faith in the state.”

In a recent study published by German futurist and trend researcher Max Horx, the economic crisis is considered a “cleansing thunderstorm” that accelerates a long-overdue process of change. According to Horx, employees are increasingly turning into self-dependent entrepreneurs. Rigid hierarchies, inefficient communication structures, and linear business processes are becoming more and more incompatible with the ever-changing digital business world. The new working environment is characterized by self-employment, freelance project work, temporary unemployment, and having multiple jobs. In the economy of tomorrow, the wish to do something meaningful and to realize personal aims will become the key drivers of productivity for future-oriented companies.

Life as a Construction Set

It is at exactly this point that the Junge Karriere cover story, which was published at almost the same time, comes in. The spin-off magazine of the big German business paper Handelsblatt describes a new generation of employees who want to actively shape business processes and improve their professional skills, reinventing their jobs and themselves. “Trying new ways and ideas has become more important than ever,” conclude the authors – because: “Today, anyone who chooses a certain career and takes up a job needs to accept that he will have to go through many stages in his professional life.”

Sociologist Richard Sennet estimates that, over 40 working years, an average American changes his job eleven times and replaces his entire know-how three times. In Germany as well, corporate hierarchies are becoming flatter, the number of legal regulations is decreasing, and employment periods are getting shorter. “This situation offers a chance of self-actualization, yet it also implies the risk of not being able to keep up with the development,” says the Junge Karriere magazine.

Today, this phenomenon is as relevant as never before, yet it isn’t new. As early as in 1960, management professor Douglas McGregor coined the term “self-actualizing man” – a man who reinvents himself and who strives for self-fulfillment by making use of his talents and opportunities in a company. By the end of the 1990s, Richard Sennett raised his concerns over the new “flexible man,” who runs the risk of losing his real personality due to constant new challenges posed by an ever-changing capitalist environment. However, around the turn of the millennium, US sociologist Richard Florida discovered the positive side of this unsteady lifestyle: The members of his “Creative Class” are fueled by ideas, prefer loose acquaintances over a few close friends, and are always ready to change their jobs and places of residence – in short: their lives.

Today, more than ever, this is a necessity. Time clock punching is increasingly becoming a thing of the past – “and this is why traditional jobs are dying out,” explains labor market researcher Frank Wießner. Manufacturing processes are increasingly automated or outsourced to low-cost countries. Employees have to acquire new qualifications time and again, and they have to score with expertise that gets outdated at an ever-growing pace. “Knowledge-intensive jobs are booming,” says Wießner.

The economic crisis reinforced tendencies that had already been at work for some time, put them at the center of attention, or simply made them visible. To the generation of 20- to 35-year-olds, these tendencies do not constitute abstract sociological or economic theories: They shape the world that they live in – a world that requires them to develop entirely new skills to get by. Frequently, their parents are having a hard time trying to imagine an existence that is profoundly insecure and extremely mobile, yet at the same time full of enormous possibilities. In a cover story about the “children of the crisis” that was published in summer 2009, the German magazine Der Spiegel wrote: “Now, during the crisis, perceptions of life are increasingly defined by uncertainty, and this is what connects members of this generation throughout the social spectrum to each other.”

Timm Klotzek, Editor-in-chief of Neon – a magazine that is considered the voice, agony aunt, and guidebook of Germany’s less-than-30-year-olds – thinks that his readers share a particular concern: “The big question is: What will become of me?” The children of the crisis have to make the best of a situation characterized by enormous complexity, and they are already pretty good at that. They are globally mobile. Think Tank 30, the Club of Rome’s hotbed of young talent, provides the well-educated elite of this generation with a forum to discuss global issues. One of its members has just returned from the US, one from Mali, and two have just come back from London. Recently, one member of the club went on a world trip and organized video conferences with schools in 25 countries. “Maybe only five or ten percent of this generation lead a truly global life, yet this has an exemplary effect on the rest of the generation,” says youth researcher Klaus Hurrelmann. “Flexibility, mobility, and globality are their Trinity,” writes Der Spiegel.

Moreover, this generation increasingly searches for meaningful ways of earning money. They long to leave dreary work routines and the practical constraints that still shaped their parents’ everyday life behind. Granted, every young generation wants to lead a more exciting life than the previous one, but the current generation is probably the first one ever that has sufficient social and technological means to put this aim into practice. Plus, there is no way back to the old certainties anyway.

That’s why they want to have their say when it comes to defining their jobs. According to a study conducted in 2004 by the German Internationales Institut für Empirische Sozialökonomie (International Institute for Empirical Social Economics), 71 percent of participants want to actively contribute to shaping processes. Two out of three employees want to develop their skills on a permanent basis and receive career support. The 2009 Arbeitsmarktklima-Index (Human Resources Climate Survey) showed that working satisfaction increases with the tasks that employees are allowed to fulfill.

Yet it is exactly this need of employees – to contribute something, to be creative, and to prevent their suggestions from being talked to death by supervisors and boards – that many companies do not meet yet. In its “Gute Arbeit” (“Good Work”) survey, the Confederation of German Trade Unions asked 8,000 employees for their opinion, covering all regions, income groups, industries, company sizes, and types of employment according to their respective share in overall employment. The majority of participants considered their professional development and education opportunities, as well as the possibilities available to them to be creative, to exert influence, and to shape processes, to be “mediocre.”

A Labor Expert’s View

Werner Eichhorst, Deputy Director of Labor Policy at the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labor, frequently receives invitations from the German Government to come to Berlin – usually when politicians don’t know how to proceed further anymore. He often appears on TV as well. In short: Eichorst is a classic expert in politics. Today, even people like him have a Facebook account. His profile says that the 40-year-old likes Erik Satie, Bill Murray, Gerhard Richter, books by Montaigne, and the film “Amélie.” Thus, Eichhorst is a pretty modern academic, and that’s why I wanted to get his perspective on the Meconomy subject:

Mr. Eichhorst, the crisis is on the wane, but it has left a deep-seated fear: Many old certainties and institutions have been rocked to their foundations. Do we have to reinvent ourselves and our jobs now?

Werner Eichhorst: At least job beginners – who are currently confronting hiring freezes and questionable employment conditions everywhere – have to be particularly creative now. At the moment, a whole wave of highly qualified and highly motivated people is entering the job market. These people won’t find a job that suits their needs just like that. They will be put on hold several times, and that’s when they will come up with the idea to try something new. If there was an unlimited number of steady jobs with good pay until retirement available, I’m sure that many young professionals would be happy to accept them. However, due to structural changes and the current economic crisis, the situation is different. That’s why people will have to use all of their energy and creativity in order to get by – this is the central challenge to each individual.

What does that mean in numbers?

Eichhorst: On the one hand, our surveys show that, after all, 55 percent of working people still have permanent full-time jobs and that this percentage hasn’t been decreasing dramatically at all in recent years. Besides, the overall number of available jobs is higher than it was five or ten years ago. Thus, the labor market is bigger than it was in the past. Many women and previously unemployed people have entered the market as well. We consider a relatively stable proportion to have additional employment opportunities as freelancers, temporary workers, or part-time workers. On the other hand, transitional phases at career entry levels have become longer. Today, many high-skilled people initially work as trainees or interns, acquire additional qualifications, or have temporary work contracts. Starting a career this way has become normal for most of them. You could say that they perceive it as an extended probationary period.

Thus, soon everything will be as it was before the crisis?

Eichhorst: No. The burden of the adjustments to come will not only be carried by the margin – by which I mean part-time workers or job beginners – but also by the core of the labor market. People working for classic large-scale employers such as Opel, Quelle, Schaeffler, or Märklin are very likely to get laid off sooner or later. Jobs that were considered crisis-proof for a long time are disappearing now, and they won’t become available again to the extent that we have become used to. Thus, the structural change rather will be accelerated by the crisis. Both the mailorder business and the manufacturing sector are shrinking rapidly. The car industry – a sector that used to be relatively viable in Germany – is currently undergoing a painful reduction in size. Similar developments have recently become visible in the financial services sector. For employees, this results in a greater necessity to switch to other occupational areas, including the service sector.

Do more people in Germany start their own businesses today?

Eichhorst: This trend can be confirmed. However, Germany lags behind other nations in this respect due to our tradition of socially secure, permanent employment relationships and the widespread longing for public sector employment. Besides, up to now, it wasn’t really necessary to deal with this issue due to the relatively good condition of the job market. Recently, starting your own business has been rehabilitated and it has also received public support. Just think of the “Me Incorporated” phenomenon: Particularly in the creative industry and in the media business, this has become one of the dominant models. In any case, major cities like Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, or Munich have virtually become “laboratories” where these trends can be observed earlier and have grown more prevalent than in other regions.

Does all of this also imply a chance? Historically speaking, many big brands and products were created during times of crisis…

Eichhorst: I agree. It is certainly possible that, just now, business ideas are being developed and companies are being established – either due to sheer necessity or due to opportunity – that we might be well familiar with ten years from now. However, I somewhat doubt that Germany provides the right basis or sufficient starting points for the emergence of something like this.

What is missing?

Eichhorst: Most notably, we need adequate support for founders of new businesses. Moreover, our educational system does not put enough emphasis on, e.g., the development of sustainable ideas in colleges…

…which isn’t the case in the United States.

Eichhorst: Exactly. The economic stimulus packages provided by the German government, however, focus on rather conservative things like scrapping incentives, road construction costs, or short-term employment – in short: things that essentially serve to slow down structural change.

What exactly should our government do instead?

Eichhorst: It should invest more money into the support of smaller businesses that are being established at the moment. This would result in more positive multiplier effects other than financing businesses that, sooner or later, shrink or disappear anyway.

Which fields should receive financial support?

Eichhorst: Energy efficiency, intelligent buildings, new forms of energy generation, modern solutions in the field of traffic engineering, education, research…and, most notably, innovative concepts in the field of healthcare – which is another sector that has antiquated administrative structures in Germany but offers enormous innovation and business potential.

How Digital Natives Change the Working World

Around the globe, experts are observing the current fundamental changes in the working world. One of them is Alexander Greisle, who formerly worked for the Fraunhofer-Institut für Arbeitswirtschaft und Organisation (Fraunhofer Institute for Work Management and Organization). Today, he runs his own business, consulting clients such as the European Union, Bayer AG, and Allianz in the development and implementation of new management and office concepts. Greisle publishes regularly on, as he puts it, “trends in the working world, providing information workers with tips and dealing with the information society.” Probably the most important trend that not only Greisle has come across is the way in which so-called “Digital Natives” redefine work. This generation that has grown up with the Internet and cell phones is being courted by market researchers, scientists, and human resources representatives like no other group. How they work and communicate, what they expect of their bosses and colleagues, whether they still go to the office at all, which technologies they would like to find there, and what products they are interested in – all of this is currently being discussed at countless congresses, workshops, and camps.

As a consultant, Greisle does not shy away from contact with people. He has already interviewed many members of this generation and was able to find out what makes these new professionals tick. His basic assumption is that Digital Natives naturally integrate technical possibilities into their everyday lives: “They wouldn’t even think of viewing the Internet as some more or less strange ‘add-on to real life’,” explains Greisle. “They consider it quite absurd that surveys on the frequency of Internet use are still being conducted.”

Moreover, the numerous possibilities of communication and collaboration that they make use of on a daily basis seem to effortlessly fit into their individual work lives. “Interpreting this solely as the result of software and technical skills definitely misses the point,” says Greisle. “What we are talking about here is a change in work culture.” He highlights the following crucial points:

High-level networking is a necessity in everyday business – both at home and at the office – as it reduces spatial and temporal boundaries.

Collaborative tools – from chats to web office suites – belong to everyday life.

Extensive social networks are more reliable than colleagues you don’t know – even if all of these networks are virtual.

Research things instead of trying to memorize them. There is much more information available than could ever be memorized. Instead, search and find.

Try it yourself. Don’t be afraid to try new possibilities and to question limitations.

Develop a solution out of different components instead of reinventing the wheel.

Question recommendations and gather additional information.

Communicate fast, spontaneously, and personally instead of spending time on scheduling meetings.

Combine “always on” with flexible working hours to keep your life in balance.

Multitask and communicate on several channels at once.

Act fast and have confidence in the Internet and computers.

Greisle has observed that young people who have been socialized this way often find it difficult to cope with traditional working environments: “You can almost physically feel the cultural shock that young people with such behavioral patterns and extensive technological and systematic know-how experience when they join one of our companies,” says the consultant. “The traditional working and management structures of many companies thwart them completely.”

Among those who are at the beginning of their professional lives as employees at the moment, especially the well-trained ones take the liberty to select companies with an adequate working culture. “Being members of the Internet generation, they will also seize the opportunity to rate employers online.” Companies who do not adjust to the changed needs of their future employees run the risk of “lacking fresh blood and of choking new impulses and ideas with the conventional. The phrase ‘We’ve always been doing it this way’ kills employee motivation.”

So, what to do next? How can employers prepare for the challenges to come? Again, the consultant has compiled a competent list:

The prerequisite is to provide the tools. Resist the temptation to work with restrictions.

Get familiar with Social Web tools. This will allow you to join in – it’s less difficult than you might think.

Create a company culture based on trust – both within the management team and between managers and employees.

Communicate in an open and timely manner. Digital Natives will be faster than you anyway.

Attach importance to a good and respectful culture of communication within the company, and when contacting partners and clients.

Accept the new openness and take it as an opportunity. In the past, industry meetings were held every year. Today, they are held every day.

Sustainability is not a subject of discussion anymore, it is a culture. Put it into practice – socially, economically, and ecologically.

Create a variety of workplaces designed to meet the demands of modern working – open space offices that facilitate communication, adequate rooms for retreat, workplaces that foster creativity, home offices, and co-working spaces.

According to Greisle, Digital Natives think flexibly – employment is just one option for them: “Ultimately, it is up to companies themselves to attract them as employees.”

Interestingly, the somewhat older generation of 30- to 45-year-olds seems to adopt these new working principles more rapidly than experts thought. A recent Forrester Research survey shows that, currently, it is not the 18- to 28-year-olds – the so-called “Generation Y” – but rather the members of Generation X who promote the use of collaborative technologies in companies. The reason for this is simple: The less-than-29-year-olds don’t have the necessary seniority and influence within companies yet. Their older co-workers, however, have by now become aware of the importance of social media – which is why they constitute the fastest-growing group of Facebook users – and of the advantages of collaborative work that is independent of time and space. Moreover, telling their bosses how great these technologies are isn’t all they can do as many of them are bosses themselves. Thus, what I have described above increasingly seems to apply to people beyond the age of 29 as well – which is something I can personally attest to.

“Security is gone anyway. Just do what your heart is set on.”

Johannes Kleske probably wouldn’t want to be given a label as people of his age find generalizations and debates on generational differences rather annoying – yet there is no way around it: If Digital Natives exist at all, the 31-year-old is one of them. His main job is being a so-called “social media expert” – which means that he consults companies in leveraging new communication platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to reach a young, critical, and highly fragmented target group that hardly uses classic media like newspapers or TV anymore. Besides, Johannes is – in plain words – a big name in the Internet because he is smart, kind, upstanding, and a man of vast reading. He has more than 3,000 followers on Twitter. To give a comparison: I have just around 500.

I first came across Johannes in mid-2008 when my first book “Morgen komm ich später rein” was just about to be published. Back then, I was researching the web for the best and most successful blogs dealing with productivity and new working methods because I wanted to send the book to some ten experts in advance for reviews. Johannes, author of the blog Tautoko, was one of them. After he had twittered on the book, the number of visits to my page went up dramatically. In his world, Johannes undoubtedly has media power.

Besides, there is scarcely anyone out there who is more knowledgeable in terms of modern nomadism and self-fulfillment in the digital economy. His theses underline that a new generation with new questions to life and work has emerged – questions that neither most employers nor state and institutional structures have answers to. We exchanged opinions for several weeks via Twitter and e-mail, discussing, among other things, the new age of insecurity and how to prepare for the jobs of the future:

Johannes, what does work mean to you?

Johannes Kleske: To me, doing things that my heart is set on is essential. That’s why I try to continuously develop my work further and to bring it closer to what I consider “fulfilling.” Still, with this approach, being stuck in an unsatisfying job is only a part of the problem. I have observed that many people don’t quit their current job because they don’t even know what job they would rather be doing. To me, the search for an occupation that my heart is set on is a lifelong journey. Each experience helps me to find out more about my personal interests, talents, and needs. I view each job as one more step toward an ideal state, while being aware of the fact that I will never reach that state as it is constantly changing together with me. Those who believe to have found their dream job at some point in this process run the risk of standing still.

Marketing expert and author Seth Godin maintains that there are an infinite number of tribes out there that are waiting for you to become their leader. Do what you love and the global platform consisting of Web 2.0, Mobile Web, etc. will reward you with followers, clients, and business opportunities. What do you think about Godin’s argument?

Kleske: I really like Godin’s definition of leadership as it isn’t based on power and managerial skills but on passion. Looking at the current state of the global economy, I believe that passion will play a much more important role again in the future. We have been accepting compromises in job choices for ages in favor of security, and now we’re flabbergasted to see that no job in the world can offer us the security we desire. I hope and believe that this insight will cause many people to say: “Security is gone anyway, so why shouldn’t I do what my heart is set on?”

What exactly do you think might happen?

Kleske: I think that, in the next months and years, we will see a new boom in trade, small businesses, and self-employment in general. My thesis is that this will ultimately lead us out of the crisis and create much more sustainability and stability than we had before the crisis. Slogans like “grow slow, grow strong” will come to the fore and quick money making will take a back seat.

On a more general note, is self-fulfillment easier in the digital economy? Is it possible to optimize your life by “hacking” it?

Kleske: This definitely holds true for ideas that can be realized in the “digital economy.” For instance, if you’ve come up with an idea for a new web application, you hardly need to invest anything – except for time. The developer tools by Google, Microsoft, and Amazon that provide programming environments and server systems have made getting started much easier. Another advantage of reduced initial costs is that you can try way more ideas today than in the past, which allows you to see which of them actually work in practice. The flexibility of the system ensures that you don’t have to quit your job before you’re sure that your ideas will catch on. Initially, you work on them in your leisure time; as soon as they become so successful that they require your undivided attention, you quit. Start-up costs are low in all other areas of the digital economy as well.

Is thinking about these issues a frivolous luxury in times of a slowly abating crisis?

Kleske: To the contrary, I think that they hold tremendous opportunities. With regard to the establishment and start-up of businesses, I even see a significant advantage: It has become a lot more difficult to get financial support for half-baked ideas. As mentioned before: At the same time, it has become much more affordable to try new ideas. I hope that, in the next months and years, businesses will increasingly start small and grow slowly in order to be able to focus on quality and service. The best thing the crisis can do for us is to cure us of our greed for quick growth.

Eelmine 123 Järgmine

Meconomy

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