Getting established in the new world of work: The edges

“There’s something deeply human and therapeutic in getting all the crap out. We also feel a whole lot better. Manure, once it’s spread around, smells less offensive and actually helps things grow.“

The manure quote above is from a three-part post (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) on Losing your Job? Psychological, Spiritual, and Practical Advice by Kenny Moore.

The quote comes from his advice for getting rid of anger, frustration, and resentment (after loss of a job). Some are givens…

“…a safe place where you can get it all out without damaging your employment prospects. It’s better to vent these noxious fumes with supportive family and friends than to bring them along to your next job interview. Support groups, professional associations and life coaches all play a helpful role in this regard.”

His series offers some valuable advice. The one thing I’d change is the “next job interview” part.

Might it be better (after you’ve vented your noxious fumes) NOT to look for a traditional  job? Deal with the psychological, spiritual, and practical issues and then realize it’s a new world of work.

In the U.S., 20% of workers are either unemployed or underemployed. (Underemployed = employed part-time when needing full-time employment.)

The reported (doctored) number is 9-10% unemployment  but it doesn’t include underemployment which brings the number to 18-20%. (And I suspect it’s actually higher because some people have just stopped looking.)

Twenty freakin percent. I know right? And it doesn’t look like it’s getting better anytime soon. Economists are saying  it will take 5-6 years to return to “normal.” Whatever that is. I don’t think anyone knows what normal will be five or six years out.

To start to understand my own normal, I started to look to the “edges.” The following is a definition of edges from The Power of Pull by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison.

Edges are places that become fertile ground for innovation because they spawn significant new unmet needs and unexploited capabilities and attract people who are risk takes. Edges therefore become significant drivers of knowledge creation and economic growth, challenging and ultimately transforming traditional arrangement and approaches.

It is exactly at the edge that the need to get better faster has the most urgency. Incumbents at the core – which is the place where most of the resources, especially people and money, are concentrated, and where old ways of thinking and acting still hold sway – have many fewer incentives to figure out the world, or to discover new ways of doing things, or to find new information. They’re on top, and they’re ready to keep doing what got them there.

The traditional definition of full-time employment is antiquated. I started to think that a bunch of part-time jobs pieced together might be a better bet (especially for folks like me that deal primarily with digital information/knowledge work). Start to see your lack of full-time employment  as a way to get established in the new world of work (before the others get there.) Or wait 5 or 6 years.

I’ve been a virtual hermit the past few months as I find my own way. So I’ll share my journey (still in progress) toward becoming an independent cloudworker in a series over the next several weeks. I think cloudworkers are on the edges. More about working with cloudworkers here…

Other parts in the series: Coworking on the Social Web, From Cubicle to Cloudworker, Establishing Rates, Balancing Your Workload, Keeping Social Skills Sharp, Your Office, and something I’ve drafted called Doucheboat (but will probably never publish).

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Tagged as: cloudworker, edges, underemployment, unemployment