"Creative Class" - a book about the people who are creating the future

Chapter 6. without a tie

One day I was late for a meeting in the spring of 2000 and called to warn about it. It was a meeting with a lawyer and an accountant of securities, so I asked the woman who answered my call, I can I spend a few minutes trying to change the jeans, black T-shirt and shoes on a more formal clothes. "Here it is not necessary", - she said.

When I parked the car and walked up to the magnificent building of stone, which was a magnificent sample corporate elegance of the XIX century and was located in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, I snapped a heart. I timidly opened the door, being absolutely sure that not dressed for the occasion. To my surprise, I saw people dressed more informally than I - in khaki pants, polo shirts, shoes and even sandals. Some were in the hands of sports bags.

Maybe I did not get there - in the office of the high-tech sector, for example, or in the hall of the new clothing store? No, he assured me Administrator. I was in the right place - at the office of the oldest and most prestigious law firm in corporate law in our city.

The environment in which we work is changing not only in terms of dress code. The working environment in many ways, becoming more open and convenient for employees: it concerns the open plan office space and other design innovations, flexible, new work rules and methods management. Of course, any tendency to limit the scope of time, but the emergence of a new type of working environment - this is not a tribute to a passing fashion, but evolutionary adaptation to a change in the nature of creative work, the resistance of the medium due to its higher efficiency.

In the first edition of this book I have called these changes "working environment without ties." Even then, I said that all of these changes by chance coincided with the development of the Internet and the growth of Internet companies.

Informal working fluid is a combination of flexible, open, interactive model scientific lab or art studio and a mechanical model of the industrial enterprise or a traditional corporate office.

An informal working environment does not appear overnight: many of its elements were formed for decades and continues to evolve to this day. Some new features of the operating environment, which only a decade ago seemed astounding, and even revolutionary, in our days become so common, that they are even more to say - except to emphasize that they have become an integral part of the emerging creative economy.

The new dress code

When I worked on the first edition of the book, a few trends shaping the future of the work environment have attracted as much attention as the weakening of rigor to the dress code requirements.

About a quarter of IT professionals who took part in 2000-2001 in the survey InformationWeek wage, said that the opportunity to wear casual clothes is among the most important the conditions of their work.

In the first edition, I talked about how once went to the elite Barney's clothing store in Seattle, where it was full of young people wandering among the hangers, sipping mineral water and chilled white wine. Manager in a black suit, a woman of thirty-odd years, who worked in the store since its opening, said that over the past few years saw significant changes in buying habits of the creative class in Seattle, especially those of its representatives who have worked on the Microsoft company, known as a paradise for nerds (From the English. nerd - nerd, "nerd"; man too deeply immersed in the study of mental activity and who can not reasonably divide the time to work and other aspects of public and private life. Approx. Ed.).

Since the opening of the store every year declining sales of traditional costumes, as well as clothing, usually worn booms (From the English. geek - people are extremely keen than ever; fan. Originally called geeks people keen on high technology (usually computers and gadgets). Approx. Ed.)- that is, khaki pants, turtlenecks and blue jackets. However, the shop is well earned on the sale of fashion in New York style: black pants, Helmut Lang shirts, outerwear and shoes Prada, leather jackets and fashion large bags.

Noting that the products of Prada and other brands of contemporary designers prefer some top managers to Microsoft, author of an article in the September issue of the Wall Street Journal outlined a new term style "Geek chic". Ten years later tehnogikov style gave way to more pretentious hipster external appearance: sneakers, hooded jacket, tight jeans and T-shirt with V-neck.

For many decades prior to the change of office dress code outside of the office style clothes gradually became more and more relaxed. During the first decades of the twentieth century, men wore suits and ties even at baseball games, and the women wore long dresses and fancy hats on picnics. By the middle of the 1960s, around the time when the gloves are no longer mandatory attribute of the official ladies dress, and the men abandoned the hat, suit became primarily an element of business clothes and met all less is office.

Casual clothing entered the 1980s in offices - in part because it is more convenient, but also due to the increasing importance of creative work. Freer style of clothing has been associated not only with the look of the staff. It was also a sign of tolerance for difference and diversity in the work environment, which corresponded to the desire of employees to have a free schedule and their desire to express their individuality.

Status is no longer linked to a high position or reputation of a good worker, he is due to belonging to a creative elite and people of creative professions do not wear uniforms.

People dress up as the creative professions, to express its own character, as do artists and scientists; they dress simple and practical to focus on the serious creative problems, which are engaged in at the moment. In other words, they are what they want.

Immediately after the appearance of the new dress code at him a barrage of criticism from supporters of the traditional style of clothing. In the late 1990s, the Wall Street Journal had a lot of publications about the women who come to the office in the "too bold" clothing. In USA Today criticized the casual clothes as a way to promiscuity, condemning it as a process of "kezhualizatsii America."

I was faced with such opposing views on what is happening on their own experience. In the 1980s, in the early days, I used to go to meetings and presentations in a business suit and tie. But when the turn of the century began to lecture on the subject of this book, one the organizers asked me to stick to less formal style, to give greater weight to the above, while others (sometimes in the same organization) held a different position.

In the winter of 2001, I received from the organizers of the event a lot of e-mails with suggestions, concerning not only the content of my speech, but also the style of clothing. The authors felt that I should be dressed in a business suit and tie and do not address such controversial topics as homosexuality. One of the main organizers of the event said their troubled colleagues: "I talked to Dr. Florida, and he assured me that there was no cause for concern. He will speak at the African-American English, in a pink tutu, and a large sombrero. Finally, he will crush the light bulb wrapped in a white napkin. His only requirement - to place everyone in the room according to the rules of feng shui to create a positive atmosphere. "

For the creative economy is not characterized by a uniform dress code, and a lot of different styles of clothing. I realized that one day in 2000 when considering the people present at the conference hall of a large Washington law firm. One man was dressed in a business suit; on the other were the jacket and khaki pants. The girl in a short skirt and blouse bold ring flashed in the language. At that point the conversation was about the dress code, and when someone has paid attention to a variety of clothing styles in present, we realized that not even notice it, so common steel occurred change.

Flexible working hours and - longer hours

Office workers not only dress differently than just a decade ago, but in another way related to the work schedule. Rather than adhere to a strict schedule, characteristic of the organizational period (five days a week, from nine up to five), more and more employees in all industries are able to choose at their own discretion as a clock, and the days work.

In the first edition of the book I cited data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1997, according to which more than 25 million (27.6 percent of all staff, working full-time) in one degree or another change their schedules - either formally or through informal arrangements with employers.

According to the institution of the family and work, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of employees would periodically change the start and end of the working day; more than half (55 percent) sometimes take work home. In May 2004, this figure rose to 36.4 million workers, accounting for about 30 per cent of the total working population.

Flexible working is much more often used by representatives of the creative class. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2004, a flexible work schedule adhered to more than 50 percent of programmers and mathematicians, 49.7 percent experts in the field of biological sciences, natural sciences and sociology, 46.7 per cent of managers, 44.5 per cent of architects and engineers, and 41.9 percent of art, design, media and entertainment industries working in the field - compared with 13.8 per cent of production workers.

Flexible working hours came partly in response to the realities of modern life. For example, in families with two working parents someone should be able to leave work early to pick up children from school. In addition, creative work in most cases associated with the projects, and their implementation is cyclic: alternate periods of intense work cooler periods.

Creative work requires great concentration, it can not be completed without interruption on vacation, even in the daytime.

Many say that they like to work hard for long hours, and then made a long run or ride a bike, to recharge your batteries for the rest of the day, which may last until the evening, becoming, in essence, in another work day.

In addition, creative thinking is almost impossible to control. Sometimes people have long speculated on some idea or unsuccessfully looking for a solution, and then the most unexpected moment everything falls into place.

Flexible working hours in any case does not mean that time becomes shorter. The development of modern capitalism, for all its long history has always been accompanied by an increase in working hours. At first this was due to the advent of electricity, and today - personal computers, mobile phones and the Internet.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the longest working week (over 49 hours) from the experts, as well as technical and management personnel, and the longest time - representatives of creative class.

"Creative Class. The people who create the future ", Richard Florida

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