Play at work : the happy new fear

‘I wouldn’t like to work in a big company. And the entrepreneurship is a lot of fun as well. You’re constantly thinking about that’ (Rickert, male, 20s).

‘What I really like is the freedom of being an entrepreneur. There is nothing like it, I choose my own clients and I go when I want to go. I can set my own goals and work with whoever I like . . . there is no one between me and the client, no project or team leaders’ (Danielle, female, 30s).

‘It is so much fun, we couldn’t work for a boss, I can tell you that. Neither of us is able to work for a boss, we are too single-minded . . . . The work is fast and that is exciting. We profile ourselves as executives plus – we don’t just execute, we also give advice and improve the original concept’ (Joost, male, 30s).

‘At the end of the day I don’t like working for a boss. I don’t. And I can imagine that I couldn’t work from nine until six. Not because of the hours, because I make them anyway, but you are so locked in at an office’ (Alfred, male, 30s).

‘I determine what I do, whenever I do it. Sometimes in the middle of the night when there is a disturbance’ (Ralf, male, 20s).

‘I like being part of a global community without a centralized government holding back information’ (Bas, male, 30s).

‘It’s a hobby and work combined’ (Yvette, female, 30s),

‘You really have to like learning’ (Ralf, male, 20s).

‘It’s all about innovation, everything I do. It’s a constant learning process. I like that since I am a curious person . . . as long as one is in IT one is innovating’ (Stefan, male, 50s).

‘I wanted to be a pioneer’ (Robert, male, 40s).

‘It’s very important to me to be working on the cutting edge. It defines me. I lose interest in things that remain the same’ (Elisabeth, female, 40s).

‘New media does not have a tradition like other art forms have and that is why it is open to a lot of people to develop it. It’s still not finished’ (Hilda, female, 40s).

‘The atmosphere at work is relaxed, jovial. There’s music in the office, people have lively conversations. No dull factory of humanoids’ (Bas, male 30s).

‘It’s very free and informal – maybe a little too cosy (gezellig) sometimes. But people like working here a lot. There’s an excellent atmosphere’ (Liesbet, female. 30s).

‘It’s a friend’s club that got out of hand. It’s very unpretentious’ (Wilhelm, male, 30s).

‘Because of the money you have to stay on the job. You can choose between a weekend in Paris

for €1000 or earning €1000 and you usually do the latter. And if you don’t watch out you

never take a holiday anymore’ (Alfred, male, 30s).

‘I haven’t taken a holiday for two or three years’. ‘Why?’ ‘Partly because I didn’t have time, but also, like a few times my partners did not have time, or something happened. Basically I don’t have money. I do a lot of work and in the end you don’t have enough money to do everything’

(Liam, male 40s).

Technobohemians or the new cybertariat? New media work in Amsterdam a decade after the Web - - - - -1

Report prepared by Rosalind Gill for the Institute of Network Cultures