This is an illustration of the point:
The number of non-white voters has doubled since the first Ronald Reagan election (for this illustration, non-white includes Hispanic.  I’m using the designation used in the election exit polling).  The world does keep changing.  And, even though there are more non-white voters than ever before, it is still a white majority electorate (72% of the 2012 Presidential election).

So, is this still a majority white nation, or not?

Yes, but…  the percentage of non-white voters, and residents (especially school age) is growing so rapidly that it “feels” like a different nation.

Things are shifting in many other ways, all around us.  For example, we are shifting to an on-line shopping nation.  And though there are still plenty (lots!) of retail stores, the percentage of purchases from on-line retailers just keeps rising.

And, now, the point of this blog post:
Though this may be an employer-employee nation, it seems ever more like a free-agent nation.

That is the phrase used by Daniel Pink in his 2001 book, Free Agent Nation:  The Future of Working for Yourself.  And, as true as it was in 2001, it is more true today… and, I suspect, will be even more true tomorrow.  Here are a couple of excerpts from his book:

This book is about the free agent.  If the term is vague, it is because I can think of no other way to describe the people I am talking about.  They are free from the bonds of a large institution, and agents of their own futures.  They are the new archetypes of work in America. 

This week, I read about how the Obama Presidential Campaign hired, not vendors, but their own staff of software engineers.  (read this terrific account from The Atlantic: When the Nerds Go Marching In:  How a dream team of engineers from Facebook, Twitter, and Google built the software that drove Barack Obama’s reelection, by Alexis Madrigal).  They “started” a “computer software start up” to feed the software and digital needs of their campaign.  In other words, they were not customers of some outside company.  They started their own, in-house.  No other campaign had ever done this before.  This was new in this new computer-digital age campaign era.  And the people they hired were very, very good at what they did.  They made less than they would have “out in the real world,” although it looks like some of them may now branch off on their own, in their own new “start-ups.”

{Observation from my very smart wife:  working in the Obama campaign is how they gained the confidence to be even more bold in their next, own, “start-up” endeavor}.

But so many of these “start-ups” are not quite the “permanent companies” that we still, in our heads, define as companies. Another passage from the Pink book:

Netscape was formed in 1994.  It went public in 1995.  And by 1999, it was gone, purchased by America On-Line and subsumed into AOL’s operation.  Life span:  four years.  Half-life:  two years.  Was Netscape a company – or was it really a project?  Does the distinction even matter? 

Why has this happened?  There are a lot of reasons, but the “results” are clear.  There is no “life-long-employer” with “life-long employment.”  And the sense of security has to be found within one’s own self.  Again, from the book:

“Whenever someone tells you that a company really cares about its employees, repeat this simple mantra:  “Bull…, ___, ____, – and you’ll dispel all dangerous illusions.”  (Rick Cohen, Agoura Hills, California).

Thus, the wisdom of Peter Drucker:  “The only job security is found in your own ability to keep learning!”

This is from my handout of my presentation of this book, which I presented at the First Friday Book Synopsis way back in December, 2002.  Remember, these numbers are now nearly 12 years old.

Chapter 1:  Bye, Bye, Organization Guy 
1)  THE CRUX:  From The Organization Man to the Independent Worker.
To understand the new economy, you must first understand the free agent.
2)     THE FACTOID:  The largest private employer in the U. S. is not General Motors, or Microsoft, or…  it is Milwaukee’s Manpower Inc., a temp agency.
3)  THE WORD:  Tailorism.  Free agents fashion their work lives to suit their own needs and desires.  Opposite of the One Size Fits All Ethic of the Organization Man era.  (synonym:  my size fits me). 

Chapter 2:  How Many are There?  The Numbers and Nuances of Free Agency.
1)  THE CRUX:  How should we categorize work?  (The federal government still groups all workers into two categories:  “farm” and “non-farm.”)  Free Agents generally fall into one of these three categories:

1. Soloists.                     (16.5 million).
2. Temps.                                  (3.5 million).
3. Microbusinesses.      (13 million).

• for a total of 33 million free agents – maybe the largest single cluster of workers in the economy.
2)  THE FACTOID:  two out of three Californians do not hold traditional jobs.
3)    THE WORD:  Nanocorp.  A microbusiness that remains “ruthlessly small” – as both a personal preference and a competitive strategy.

There is much more in this fine book about this new reality – this new reality that is now more new, and more true, than ever before.

So, who do you work for?  Yes, there are still plenty of folks who have “jobs” – they are “employees” for an “employer.”  But so many of us are now “free agents” that it feels like the world has shifted, and continues to shift even more.

And the answer to “who do you work for” is increasingly “I’m a free agent.  I work for myself.”