Confronting the new world of work 

Few people are going to be immune from the financial downturn.

It is something most of us are going to have to live with over the coming months, whether we are genuinely struggling to make ends meet, or are simply thinking a little more carefully than normal about the choices we make.

Mercifully, it is a smaller number of people who are actually going to lose their job. But perhaps this is exactly the time to think about expanding your horizons and confronting the possibilities that the world of work can offer?

To gain a new perspective on the 21st Century world of work, I had a chat with Anuj Goyal, creative director and joint founder of Workology.com. This is a company which hopes to provide a new model of work, and thinks the uncertain future could be the perfect showcase for an unconventional vision of the job market.

Workology.com is a website where professionals can find each other outside of the confines of the 9-5 corporate world, bringing their diverse talents to a community of people who have opted out of the traditional daily grind for their own internal motivation and to follow their own agenda.

This can encompass everything from contract work, through freelance, to voluntary positions.

Anuj, who founded the company last year with CEO Sam Gyimah, says the site offers a space where people can find each other’s unique abilities.

“We are gelling a community and a series of markets that haven’t been addressed before, bringing together segregated markets and giving people who would never have otherwise found each other the opportunity to communicate,” he said.

“We facilitate the conversation that they would otherwise be having at the school gates.”

The founders say that the concept of treating everyone as an individual is central to the ethos of Workology.com. They add that the content it supplies differentiates it from simple social networking sites is, and helps keep a strict focus on each individual user.

Anuj adds: “These people have very fluid and personal needs, so everyone has a very personal experience of the site.”

One of the hurdles is the received wisdom of 9-5 being the standard unit of work, with anything outside this almost being deemed as slightly suspicious.

This is an issue which the founders of the site have found people returning to - whether they are contract workers, freelancer, or just returning from maternity or paternity leave, there is no easy appellation which lends itself to people who are not in straightforward 9-5 jobs.

Anuj said: “Through the content we publish we aim to tap into something fundamental; people’s psychologies, rather than just their immediate need for a job.

“We tap into their situational needs - what do you call yourself?

“These are the real issues for people.”

But the financial crisis has been a catalyst for a wider truth which Anuj believes has been fermenting in the minds of employees who would traditionally have placed their faith in the system.

“What we are seeing with the credit crunch is people losing faith in the big brands, and that is permeating every aspect of people’s thinking and running through their professional lives - they want advice and expertise,” he said.

The economic upheavals of the past few weeks - “a Shakespearean tragedy”, or “a financial 9/11″, suggests Anuj - have possibly sped up the journey that Workology.com was already on.

But ultimately, it may be the right time for people to embrace this Brave New World of work.

“The Facebook generation is growing up - people are used to staying in touch, socialising and networking,” Anuj added.

“It is a phenomenon which is going to grow and grow over the next five years.”

IMAGE by Flickr user creatingkoan