Discover the joy of modular work

The workplace is changing, as many of us have found out the hard way. Marcus Letcher, Australian author and consultant, has a message: exploit the new jobs for your own purposes before they exploit you. He’s coined the term “modular work” for a new pattern of working where there’s room for making heart choices and following your dreams, as well as paying the bills. Modular worker Lindy Stirling takes a look at the ideas in his book, Making Your Future Work.

Concerned about your job security in the future? Finding your current work satisfaction less than it used to be? Looking for ways to manage your time, your work, your family, your creativity, your life? Marcus Letcher could give you some very practical and realistic ways of tackling these and other issues of personal employment.

This very readable book is full of real examples of people who have broken the mould of a permanent lifelong job using this alternative work model, and discovered the joys of modular work. Marcus Letcher says that this new type of work has brought him both personal and professional satisfaction while giving him back control of his life and real flexibility. And I can say much the same, having opted out of life as a burnt out teacher some five years ago for modular work — but more of that later.

Lifestyle versus work or life

Modular work is all about customising work to suit individual needs. Letcher aims (and largely succeeds) in showing that the quality of life needs not be lost to the dictates of the labour market — that a balance between earning a living and living a sane, satisfying and sustaining life is possible.

His main message is that through an intelligent selection of part-time modules of work, employment and personal enterprise activities can be meaningfully combined. He says, "Modular work is more than a job mix — it is a job composition, in which each distinct module of work has a rightful place and function which enhances the unity, form and purpose of the whole". Ideally each job should have the potential to reinforce the others so that all are mutually supportive. If the modules of work are strong and interrelated, they can be bolted together for a tight and reliable fit, then dismantled and regrouped to match new situations.

Instead of "a job", you need to think in terms of "work" that you can supply in a number of ways. Instead of a "job title" that limits your scope, harness your capabilities to "provide services". Think not of what you are, but what you do. It's all about raising your employability factor through adding value. Instead of being at the whim of an employer, you can create the flexibility to choose when and what you want to do

Who is it for?

Marcus Letcher has written elsewhere for SEEK about the future of work. He describes three groups of people hit hard by the changing nature of the workplace. He calls these the "overs", ""unders" and "outs". In the past seven years, full-time jobs have risen 1 per cent and part time by 27 per cent. This has added to the plight of involuntary part time workers.

Under employment is marginalising more and more people. Those with "commonly held...and non-specific skills are falling behind...the highly sought after 'knowledge' or 'gold collar' workers," says Marcus Letcher. Such people simply don't earn enough to meet their needs.

The "over-employed" suffer from the perception that "if you are not working a 12 hour day you're perceived to be not serious about your job". Their lot is the "fabulous job, no life" syndrome.

Thirdly, the unemployed are "out" of the loop of employment, where their skills, self confidence, networks and employment savvy all diminish over time.

The modular work message is this: "Exploit the new jobs for your own purposes before they exploit you." You may find the modular work mode attractive if you:

• have retired early;
• have been or are threatened with retrenchment;
• want a vehicle of career transition;
• are young and unable to find opportunities which offer worthwhile development opportunities;
• want to cut back a demanding work style but stay connected to the workforce;
• live in a rural area with disappearing full-time work opportunities;
• are a sole parent;
• want to start a small business enterprise;
• want to give voice to your special talents;
• feel stale after many years in the same job;
• mature and unemployed.

What is it?

Modular work revolves around three areas: the core module, support modules and gap fillers.

Core modules
The core module is the centrepiece around which your work matrix is built. It may only be small, but it makes the rest worthwhile because it is your vision, the work that transcends the mundane purely cash flow jobs. Your core module will maintain your profile and networks in that field. It will also assist skill development — it's usually easier to develop skills related to your existing skills base than to acquire entirely new ones. Letcher suggests that in attempting to identify your core module, ask yourself questions like these.

• What excites you?
• What gives you energy rather drains you?
• What are your hobbies?
• What can't you wait to start and never put off?
• What have you been doing when you look up and can't believe how much time has passed?

Support modules
Support modules are constants — usually a part-time job with income that is reliable. At best these will dovetail with your core module so that areas overlap in networks, skills and technologies.

Gap fillers
Gap fillers are just as the name implies. These may be used to plug up gaps in your income stream, and are generally short term. If they are longer term, they usually require minimal time input and again it's desirable if they have synergy with the other modules. Don't underestimate the potential of the gap filler, as they can tide you over mortgage payments and other necessaries when your other income streams are low.

The similarities between any of the modules multiplies the advantages of cross fertilisation. This adds to your own multi-skilling and builds transferable skills that are essential in this nature of work. Self-education or training also benefits the different modules. As Marcus Letcher wisely points out, "Just as you would invest cash into a business, invest in yourself, your training and development and thereby increase the return on your most valuable asset: You."

"The conundrum of our times: the only way to make a living is as a specialist and the only way to have a life is to do a variety of things. The way to live and make a living is to have a speciality and apply it to niches across the field, to have broad skills that can converge to create and recreate career pathways." Marcus Letcher goes on to say that if we are to embrace this, we need skills that are saleable, valued, valuable and transferable.

What do you need?

While it appears exciting and full of marvellous potential, the modular work model is not a cure all for everyone. Like most things in life it will suit some but not all. It needs some fundamental essentials, without which the process is likely to be derailed, re-routed into a backwater, or just run out of steam. Marcus Letcher lists six things he believes are essential for the model to work:

• a skill or skills around which you can position the modules of work;
• the art of career self-management and the insights it needs;
• the ability to be enterprising in the application of your skill and the way you apply it;
• potential customers and knowledge of how you can bring yourself closer to them;
• good networks and the ability to build these in appropriate areas;
• access and understanding of technologies which will lighten your load.

These are the practical nuts and bolts of what is required, but for many the first step is to perceive yourself, the job market and "the crisis" in a different way. There are two characters comprising the Chinese pictogram for 'crisis'. One is danger, and the other is opportunity. You have to be able to change your perspective from one that sees opportunity rather than danger in order to grasp the potential of modular work and its application in this ever changing work landscape. By going out to meet the crisis on your terms, you are minimising the element of danger, and maximising the element of opportunity.

The most successful modular workers according to Marcus Letcher are:

• optimistic but realistic with their feet firmly on the ground;
• well organised;
• initiating;
• imaginative;
• curious;
• resilient;
• self-reliant;
• self-managing.

A personal reflection

Five years ago, I was working for a government organisation, after having been seconded from teaching three years before. I could see the writing on the wall. My options were to wait to be sent back to my school, return voluntarily or jump ship altogether. I had been in education for nearly 20 years and the thought of returning to the classroom filled me with dread.

So, I resigned. I took up a part time job as an editor, which allowed me to explore my interests in curriculum writing and to develop skills in desktop publishing, proof reading and writing. I also expanded existing networks to assist in this venture. At the same time I took on contract work as an instructor in bicycle education — work I had done previously but which was now outsourced. This was in several two-day blocks throughout the school term. A few years before all this, I had completed my certificate in clinical massage, so now began actively promoting my massage services as another part time business. I also began a small gardening business which fell over due to poor marketing and a physical injury. As my desktop publishing skills developed, I was able to offer these services to those in my networks. After three and a half years, funding for the editorial position ceased and I was asked to apply for an education officer's position that I now hold three days per week.

I do not advertise any of my services, but have work referred to me through my networks. This model of employment works for me extremely well. I have a great deal of flexibility in when I work (I can choose when I desktop publish, massage and instruct) and am able to keep closely in touch with current developments in education through my three-days a week job and the instructor's work. These networks are often overlapping and mutually supportive. The desktop publishing work comes from my contacts in these educational fields, and my massage clients come from word of mouth in my other work areas, and even other tradespeople whom I employ (like the electrician's wife who had a bad back!). I also have the freedom to work some days at home.

For me, this mode of work has been life changing. I thought I didn't work as many hours as I once did. However, the hours are about the same but as they are at more suitable times. I have more useable free time which I can spend playing golf or making furniture as a hobby, and sometimes even to sell! My income stream has remained similar and I no longer suffer the feeling of burnout. I still have sufficient people contact and enjoy an enormous variety in my working life. The thought of returning to a five-day a week job doing the same thing at the same place is not one I can any more imagine for me. As Victoria McKee says in Working it Out: "This sense of control — real or illusionary — is now considered crucial not only to the productivity but to the health and psychological well-being of a workforce." It has truly been a liberating experience.

by Lindy Stirling