From 9-to-5 mentality to flexible 24/7 society, part 3

Young entrepreneurs

People who are very good at creating jobs are youth. In addition to the change in working environment and lifestyle, there is a big change in the average age people start their own company. As explained in the previous paragraph unemployment is an increasing problem in Europe. Also young people barely figure in the labour market when they are graduated. The striking thing is that young people, after being rejected for several jobs or when they can’t seem to find one, create jobs themselves in a very creative way. Young people try to fill the holes in the market with their knowledge of social media, computers, internet and other principles they grew up with and that are perfectly normal and clear for them. Also in marketing youngsters are welcome guests, because businesses are really looking for creative and open minds to advice them about their marketing campaigns and strategies. All jobs that have roles to play for youth. Youngsters start up their own company to take matters into their own hands. In the last 5 years the number of young entrepreneurs has increased with almost 40%. A big increase in times of crisis[5].

Working from home

A result of the change of people’s working lifestyle is the alteration of the traditional roles in family life. Families now most of the time consist of two working parents. Therefore it is not very pleasant to both have a 9-to-5 job at the office 5 days a week. However, it is really necessary to work both because taking care of a family and a home is more expensive than ever. It is therefore becoming more common that parents can work partly at home. This way they can still take care of the kids, be in time to pick them up from school and work on flexible hours. For example they can work in the evening when the children are sleeping and play with them during the day. A 9-to-5 job could never make this possible. 

From 9-to-5 mentality to flexible 24/7 society, part 2

Urban nomads

People are flexible workers these days. They work anywhere, anytime. This means they not only work at different spots in the city and in the world, but also for several different companies. Working at home, skyping in a coffee shop, a meeting at a lunchroom and afterwards answering e-mails on a bench in the park. The lifestyle I describe here is that of a typical urban nomad. Urban nomads are in need of products and services that makes their lives as fast and easy as possible. Think about fast food, but also flexplaces (as seen on the title page) like seats to meet[2].

‘Flexwet’

In the Netherlands a law has been created that is specially aimed at flexworkers like for instance freelancers. It is called the flexwet[3]. This law makes it easier for flexworkers to submit a request to work more or less hours than usual. In addition it also ensures that flexworkers also must earn a minimum wage.[4] This law is a logical complement of the way people are changing their working lifestyles. The government has created this ‘flexwet’ to adapt to the shift in working environment and lifestyle.

Increasing number of start-ups

Self-employed entrepreneurs are the perfect example of a group who don’t suit the 9-to-5 mentality. Especially when they just started their company from scratch. Since the economic crisis, unemployment is rising through the roof. And although starting up your own business is a risky gamble, the number of start-ups is still on the rise. If you have a certain expertise but no one will or is able to hire you, you will have to make a move yourself to conquer the labour market. People are taking matters into their own hands and become self-employed entrepreneurs, so they are no longer dependent on employment and temporary jobs. They try to compete with similar companies in their field of expertise by standing out in price, values,  or quality, but they remain uncertain of work in the beginning. Many fail but the smart ones survive. The survivors are the ones who see the holes in the market and create jobs themselves. 

From 9-to-5 mentality to flexible 24/7 society part 1

Introduction

In the beginning of the 20th century contracting parties were free to determine any contractual terms, due to the large differences in power that existed between employer and employee. This led to great abuse of the employees, to the detriment of the worker. Therefore the government decided to limit the contractual freedom of the parties by law to protect the rights of the workers. For example working hours were limited by law, so workers could no longer be exploited[1].

In the 21^st century there is little talk of freedom of contract. Every employee is protected by law, but new laws have stretched the working time legislation. Why specifically this law has changed? Well, this is obviously because our working schedule has changed! In this report I will describe a few elements of working that have drastically changed since the last decade, along with our lifestyle.

A shift in the working environment

It is clear that something is changing on the labour market. We are dealing with a shift. The 9-to-5 mentality is no more. Work doesn’t necessarily stop at five and the weekend isn’t per se the couple of days in the week when we relax. Globalization has made it possible to be connected with the rest of the world 24/7. Every minute of the day people around the world are awake, awake and working. And as big companies have offices and partners from all around the world, they expect their employees to be very flexible in their working hours. Skype has become a normal way of communicating or alternatively we just fly to the other side of Europe in a few hours to meet up with a business partner face to face.