Markus Albers - Meconomy

MARKUS ALBERS

MECONOMY

How to reinvent ourselves

for the future of work

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All parts of this publication are protected by copyright laws. Any utilization of its contents requires written permission by the author.

published by epubli GmbH, Berlin

www.epubli.de

ISBN 978-3-86931-885-1

Copyright © 2009 Markus Albers, Berlin

www.markusalbers.com

www.meconomy.me

Translated into English by Martin Fischer

Cover design by Katrin Hoffmann

Typeset by Dirk Mönkemöller

WHY I AM WRITING THIS BOOK

“Starting your own business is risky, but the recent economic turmoil suggests that we should recalibrate our notions of safety. The working world used to be divided into safe but boring jobs, and exciting but risky ones. Of late, many of the supposedly safe professions have been decimated – which should help us let go of illusions of safety.”

Alain de Botton, Monocle “Small Business Guide” 2009/10

Actually, the plan was airtight. I had quit my well-paying, permanent employment because I wanted to be free. I wanted to get away from the daily grind at the office, from being directed by others, from the terror of nit-picky meetings and required attendance. I had even written a book called “Morgen komm ich später rein” (“I’ll be in later tomorrow”) about the fact that we are free to work when and wherever we want to – as long as the job gets done. During my research for the book, I had found many progressive companies that gave a lot of freedom to their employees and were highly successful in doing so. However, I knew exactly that my former employer – the magazine Vanity Fair that I had worked for as a managing editor – didn’t belong to them, same as most of the other media companies that I knew. Journalists are on duty 24/7. And they better always stay at their desks as there might be something that needs their attention.

Thus, I had decided to initially test my work-anywhere concept – which I had called “Easy Economy” – in the position in which it can be realized best: as a freelancer. I had many contacts, a presentable portfolio, many ideas, and I charged daily rates that I felt comfortable with. The plan was that I would travel the world, writing stories and developing concepts, anywhere. After my return to Germany, I would work as a consultant for publishers and agencies or give speeches. Should I get itchy feet for a couple of months, I would simply write the next book. In Bali, Buenos Aires, Bangkok – or some village in Eastern Germany. I fancied a life that I had always dreamt of: independent, cosmopolitan, and comfortable.

Then the economic crisis hit.

Initially, I thought what probably everyone else thought: It’ll pass. Doesn’t affect me. Then, the first people around me – professionals whom I had always considered optimistic and content – started painting the world black, predicting fewer jobs, smaller budgets, and crankier customers. Eventually, I noticed it myself: Editors didn’t call back. Fees were forced down, and jobs that I had believed to be safe were cancelled from one day to the next. Things didn’t really feel dramatic but still difficult, insecure, and kind of gloomy.

Did I really want to realize my vision of global mobility, maximum freedom, and professional self-fulfillment right now, of all times? Was it still about having the freedom to “be in later” or about having a job at all? Don’t act bitchy, don’t make unrealistic demands, and, for God’s sake, be at your desk and reachable. You better work overtime before they put you on short hours. During the recession, these were obviously the new demands that employees and freelancers had to meet. It occurred to me that I’d better put my travel plans on hold, mothball the collaboration software, and look for a decent 9-to-5 job – as long as there were any – and that I should be glad to get to sit at my desk every day.

Or not?

After several days of pondering and numerous long discussions with friends and colleagues, I decided to do what every analytical man of action would have done after careful consideration: nothing to begin with. Maybe the crisis would just solve itself in the end. In any case, I didn’t want to jettison my theories just because the going got tougher – even though I felt like a man running towards an erupting volcano against a stream of refugees.

On one of those days when I seriously asked myself if my decision to abandon my leading position with the editorial staff had been somewhat rash, my phone buzzed with an SMS alert: “Vanity Fair out of business, all get the sack,” wrote a former colleague from the editorial board. At this point, I knew: It had been smarter to leave the sinking ship on my own initiative and with a vision than to cling to a permanent job that, at the end of the day, wasn’t that permanent. At any rate, my laid-off ex-colleagues had rough times ahead of them: The dismissal had taken them by surprise, and most of them didn’t have a plan B. Moreover: When 80 magazine employees look for a new job at once, things get tight. During the months to follow, jobs that had been believed to be crisis-proof turned out to be rather shaky – even at traditional brands such as Märklin, Rosenthal, Schiesser, Karstadt, and Opel. The security for life that previous generations enjoyed could no longer be found at these companies.

I, in turn, realized that the initially poor job situation was merely due to the insecurity that companies felt at the beginning of the crisis. Apparently, my theory wasn’t that naïve. There was indeed a chance that I could lead my free, independent, and happy life even in economically difficult times. Today, I earn at least as much as I did as a permanent employee, provided that I don’t take a time out. The way I work – sometimes in an office, sometimes in a café in Lisbon – isn’t questioned by anyone anymore. Life isn’t always easy, but you probably don’t get any closer to the Easy Economy.

Since then, I have met many people who have gone very similar ways: Disappointed by old certainties, they decided to take their lives into their own hands and to finally do what they love. They established an e-learning company or invented a little iPhone app that allows people to increase their own productivity. They set up a freelance agency that offers virtual personal assistants, they spent the winter months working in South America or stayed at a little house in the countryside.

To some, the lesson from the crisis is to stick to security even more and, in particular, to their permanent employment – provided that they have one. This seems plausible and, for the short term, reasonable. Yet in the long run, it isn’t necessarily the best and definitely not the only strategy. Some quit their well-paid jobs because they didn’t want to be intimidated by the crisis or because they perceived it as a chance. Many young professionals abandoned all hope for permanent employment and started to pursue their own business models from their living rooms, using nothing more than a laptop.

It is no accident that the Easy Economy approach, i.e. the approach of mobile, flexible, and autonomous working, also works during economically difficult times. Actually, I’ve come to believe that it even works better during such times. The crisis is already over again – at least this is what it feels like – but it has caused a profound change of consciousness. It was the catalyst for a development that experts had already considered inevitable, yet the crisis accelerated it and, most notably, made it visible to many people for the first time.

Its results are biographies and professional vitae that have little in common with those of the generation of our parents. We turn our hobbies into our professions, making the places where we feel the happiest and where we are most productive the centers of our lives. We have to position ourselves much like a brand, work on our strengths, and outsource tasks that we don’t like or that we’re not good at to other experts, maybe even to service providers in other countries. We feel easier about becoming independent professionals; above all, however, we think and feel in a more independent way. It is a good, exciting, and fulfilling life, yet not everyone can lead it. Only those with a good education, a disposition for lifelong learning, cultural open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, and a belief in their own abilities can be among us. This also means that many will fall through the cracks. The new working environment – let’s call it the Meconomy – will be tough, and it will divide our societies right in the middle.