HAMBURG (dpa) – He’s between 20 to 30 years of age, he’s quick, flexible and works unflinchingly at night or at the weekend. He’s a new breed of post-industrial worker, a “yettie”.
“He’s a child of the New Economy who defines himself by his engagement in the IT sector,” says Betty Siegel, a sociologist at the Hamburg Trend Bureau.
“Work is the be-all and end-all for them,” says Siegel. “Different from
the yuppie of the 1980s, the yettie cares little for suit and tie. His
trademark is understatement.”
At least, as far as appearances go. Within their own minds, “yetties” –
the young, entrepreneurial, tech-based Internet elite – know exactly what
they have to do to sell themselves.
Many IT (information technology) workers have come to realize that they
have become entrepreneurs themselves with their own workforce, says industrial
sociologist Guenter Voss of the Technical University in Chemnitz, Germany.
“And each one of them is forced to redevelop and sell themselves as a product
time and again,” he says, adding that this is a completely new phenomenon.
For the last two years, absolute flexibility and life between several cities
has been a way of life for Hagen Kuehn.
The 34-year-old project leader at a medium-sized software firm commutes
every week between London, Frankfurt and company headquarters in Sankt
Georgen, in the Black Forest.
“It’s a crazy feeling to be working on the world’s largest running international
e-commerce project,” says Kuehn, who realizes that his family suffers as
a result. But on the other hand he could hardly let such an opportunity
go by, he has to admit.
The IT sector in Germany currently employs around 1.8 million people, or
five per cent of the working population. By 2003 that figure is expected
to grow to 2.4 million.
But the so-called New Economy is demanding.
“Eight-hour days or 40-hour weeks are a thing of the past in IT,” says
Werner Senger, chief executive of the Federation for Information and Communications
Systems.
But with a starting salary of frequently more than 100,000 marks (44,500
dollars), that sort of life can have its advantages, too. Many businesses
listed on Germany’s Neuer Markt technology index have also made it a principle
to share success with their employees in the form of share options.
Sabine Soellheim, project manager at a southern German software firm, views
flexibility as an advantage.
“Anyone with stamina can advance quickly and far in this sector, while
constant learning boosts the IT specialists’ self-confidence enormously.
But the trick is not to become over-confident,” she says.
Marit van Santen, the wife of a company founder, sums up the flip side
of the IT world: “We often carry on a relationship by e-mail and phone.
Not to mention the feelings of loneliness at the weekend.”
Jens Jahn, business manager for an Internet design firm in Hesse, explains
how the New Economy can be made to work in practice.
“We have a ‘goody man’ – a guy who looks after the staff’s spiritual well-being.”
To stop the staff wasting too much going out for food, the “goody man”
buys fruit, vegetables, sweets and other snacks for everyone. And the company
offers free relaxation for tired backs, sending out a masseuse twice a
week to freshen up the workers, Jahn says.
Andreas Boes, a sociologist at the Technical University of Darmstadt, says
no one can tell where developments in IT working practices may lead. Over
the last two years, he has compiled 200 interviews with workers and experts
in the IT sector.
His conclusion: “The stock-exchange mania will soon blow over. But we also
have to see how long people will cope with the dilemma of having a job
yet having to do entirely without a social life or a family.”
