The Daily Market Force

In Germany, researchers in the field of sociology of labor introduced the concept of the employee-entrepreneur (German: “Arbeitskraftunternehmer”) (Voß and Pongratz 1998).⁹² They use this concept to describe the personal changes of employees who start acting as entrepreneurs, even while they are working under an employment contract for a company. The direct impact of the market on the worker is expressed within this construct. The authors describe three basic characteristics of the employee-entrepreneurs. First, a higher need for self-control of the worker can be observed. The reduction of control by an outsider is accompanied by new strategies for indirect operative control as well as an intense pressure to perform. Second, the employee-entrepreneur needs to redefine his or her relationship toward his or her own ability to perform. This means that they need to intensify the promotion of their own person and with that increase their value as a worker. They need to become increasingly oriented toward efficiency. Third, the authors propose that the relationship between work and private life will structurally change. The employee-entrepreneur will consider labor important concerning his or her overall life set-up. The authors see the enormous increase in individual, not work-related organization- and communication technology as one important indication of the development toward a high number of employee-entrepreneurs. Voß and Pongraz’s analysis concentrates on the consequences of organizational changes, especially how employees’ attitudes toward their work changes.

The authors focus on the explaining of the new social status of workers due to the loosening of boundaries between work and private life. The effects on the social status of employees due to the evolving of this new kind of work force are rather ambiguous.

More possibilities of a satisfied work life come along with a potential of a decline in employment, because the increasing influence of the market leads to an increasing power of employers over employees.

How the process of increasing influences of market mechanisms also affect the work of freelancers and entrepreneurs becomes obvious in a study by Gerlmaier (2002).

Gerlmaier studied new forms of work organizations with the increase of self organization in Germany. In this psychologically oriented quantitative study of 224 IT professionals, she compared two different kinds of so-called new self-employed (freelancers and entrepreneurs) with more traditionally oriented employees. There are

92 Their analysis is built on qualitative empirical data conducted in the context of the Munich Collaborative Research Center 333 as well as on personal experience of one of the authors as management coach.

clear group-specific differences in aspects of curtailing of feelings as well as concerning resources for working. Concerning health, she found clearly more symptoms of exhaustion with entrepreneurs. Freelancers fought with sorrows about the future and the compatibility of work and private life more than this was the case with traditionally oriented employees. They experienced both a high inability to recover and a reduced level of work-life balance. Interestingly, this did not result in tension because of listlessness but corresponds to rather high levels of satisfaction regarding work topics.

The tasks that were carried out independently corresponded to higher external needs due to more intense market pressure than in activities that were performed within a traditional organization. These and other results of the survey led to the question of whether entrepreneurs really experience a higher amount of freedom and corporate responsibility compared to people working in more hierarchical structures. Freelancers and entrepreneurs face higher exigencies of flexibility and self-organization because of higher market- and customer-oriented working conditions. These needs for flexibility often do not bring more freedom and a greater possibility for interaction, conditions that would help to handle the new exigencies. Generally, the study showed that stress factors are mainly due to pressure within work and long working hours in combination with high self-organizational necessities and emotional requirements due to the contact with difficult costumers. Therefore, Gerlmaier concluded that training in self-management and conflict-solving competences should be implemented within these occupations, and additionally that project management should be optimized (Gerlmaier 2002). The need for constantly considering the work process and its results through a high amount of personal orientation on the job is clearly a challenge for entrepreneurs and freelancers.

Only by staying flexible in this context are they able to handle their work process properly.

Jim’s previously presented statement about his typical work day being oriented to industry cycles represents the very limited personal influence he has on the arrangement of his work day and organization of his tasks. This supports his further remarks that his working time is not regulated but depends on the release cycle. Another example was given by Vivek from US Trad Corp. He confirms the direct impact of the industry on the daily work organization and tasks:

“[The schedules] work out, but then the whole software industry has a lot of slips. Because we have current customers and they come up with their issues and then it takes us sometimes two, three days before the issues resolve. So assuming we don’t have any interruptions we usually kind of stick to the

schedule. But then I don’t think there is any company that can stick to their schedules.” (Vivek, 29 years old, US Trad Corp)

Despite the fact that schedules cannot be maintained within the industry because of pressure from outside schedules; the management still puts pressure on their employees because they do not meet their goals.

Another case of how the market organizes the daily work process was expressed by Herr Roth. Asked for the setup of the typical work day he referred to the customer’s influence.

“Depending on what is demanded from the customer, that’s how the daily work day is arranged.” (Herr Roth, 35 years old, German Soft Corp)

When I asked Frau Müller how independent her work is and if she can have sole responsibility for her tasks, she answered: “Well, I must have the sole responsibility for my work!” This illustrates what was discussed in other studies: How the allegedly gained freedom puts even more pressure on the employees. Sennett also emphasizes the enormous pressure that results when workers take on increasing responsibility. With teamwork, for example, employees keep a high responsibility for their own work and are not discharged from their responsibility. The example of a woman’s experience in an advertising agency illustrates this issue. The woman took much responsibility and risk for her new career. However, she was unable to handle the risks that came along with her work and could not handle her duties. One important reason was that the responsibilities were not countervailed by an increase in appreciation by her new employer. Also, the case of the social climber who faces a lot of responsibility in his jobs shows how this situation is accompanied by the fear of losing control over his life.

Because the high responsibility he has within his work leads to constantly changing job changes and therefore constant changes in his private life, the responsibility leads to high emotional pressure. Sennett even goes to such lengths as imputing to people like today’s social climber a corrosion of character (which is also the title of his book) because of the increasing necessity to react in the short term and loosening of long-term relationships (Sennett 1998).

The influence of the market also leads to a reduction of creative potential in what were originally creative jobs. When I asked Frau Schmidt if she would judge her work as being rather creative or rather routine work she had a clear answer. In her view, software developing is always a creative work. She indicated that the creativity was

even higher earlier, when employees could bring in their own ideas more instead of working under enormous time pressure and focusing more directly on a current project for a customer. But still, the work they perform is creative work. Her management tasks, in contrast, she defined as highly routine kind of work. But Frau Schmidt said she always needs a new challenge. That is one reason why she thinks that her time in her current position is limited. Because of the relatively flat hierarchies it is difficult to move up, so she does not know what comes next.

An intense workload, which is caused by the influence of the market, among other things, leads to an increase in work-related illnesses. One of the changes observed by an interviewee is that people only stay at home when they have severe and chronic illnesses like tinnitus and chronic back problems. She has noticed that the frequency of these illnesses is increasing. On the other hand, Frau Schmidt told me: “Because of a cold nobody here stays at home.” Because employees work under intense pressure, they come to work with their cold. This subjective observation can be confirmed by statistical data about trends in sick time in Germany. The number of staff away on sick leave has decreased for years and has reached a historical low. In 2004, the total number of staff home sick was below 3 percent. A study by one big German health insurance company confirms that more than two thirds of its members go to work sick. This leads to the increase in early retirements and chronic illnesses that are work-related (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) 2006).

The market also influences the work time, more specifically, the exposure to overtime.

“The only reason we keep track of the overtime is because of the costs of the particular project, cost of the particular task. We are not paid overtime.” (Tom, 53 years old, US Trad Corp)

Starting out at the beginning of his career with a self-concept of an ever-flexible employee who has to move on constantly, Herr Meier has reached a point (at 40 years of age) where he seeks more security, also economic security, and stability. Therefore he decided to start working for a large company to receive some more stability. But he admits that the extremely flexible and open way in which he had organized his work life before was limited to a specific time and age period. As he gets older he strives for a quieter work environment. Because German Soft Corp has enough assignments, he feels there is more security now. But later during the interview he admitted that planning the future is still difficult. He cannot plan anything for five weeks ahead.

“Overnight there could be a next big project, the chance exists, but it does not have to happen.” (Herr Meier, 40 years old, German Soft Corp).

Herr Roth talks about the mentality within his work environment:

“I cannot resist changes; therefore I have to have the ability to make the best out of changes. I see changes as new chances that I have not had before. … Because I have engaged in rearrangements it was possible for me to have professional advancement.” (Herr Roth, 35 years old, German Soft Corp).

Finally, Herr Lang doubts if personnel management really means moving up the ladder in his company. Moving to a higher level in the hierarchy includes increasing pressure from the top management, which in turn depends on external forces. Also, moving up the ladder means not getting in touch with project tasks like planning and controlling.

These cases about the direct impact of market forces on employees demonstrate how this dimension changes work processes.