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Maybe more than you think, argued Julien Vayssiere, chief development architect at SAP, on SAP’s Community Network recently. In the thought-provoking post, Vayssiere notes that despite the endless chatter about “free agent nation,” he actually doesn’t see that many independent pros around him. Instead of being surrounded by contractors, freelancers and the like – those we usually think of as independent workers – Vayssiere observes that employees themselves are adopting the mindset of the independent worker:

Why don’t I see more free agents around me? Is it just because governments are slow at creating “laws that reflect the new workplace reality“? Is it because of my vantage point, being employed by a large IT firm? Is it that, in many places of the world, being an employee is still more advantageous in terms of taxes, financial safety and access to social benefits? Is it that Free Agency may, in the end, not be the key to freedom, self-fulfillment and wealth?

My opinion is that those of us who still appear as employees on the outside have started becoming free agents on the inside. We now plan careers, education, projects as if we were free agents, or could become free agents soon, even though we work within the context of “traditional” employment.

Let’s look at the way we work today. We make sure our LinkedIn profile is up to date. We groom our network of connections on a variety of social networks. We maintain a certain amount of social media activity as a projection of our work persona. In short, we build our personal brand and personal portfolio. Or, in the words of [The Individual Age Economics author Andrei] Cherny again, “today each individual is ultimately responsible for guiding their own career and economic future. Today, everyone is an entrepreneur; everyone is their own small business“. Whether we like this trend or not, whether we see this as a threat or an opportunity, I think it captures the way many knowledge workers have come to think about themselves and their situation in the workforce.

He closes with a series of questions, asking readers to weigh in on whether their experience aligns with his. “Is becoming a Free Agent something you desire or something you fear? Are you already a free agent?” he asks. These are good questions to ponder, and one could also ask if this shift towards a free agent mindset among traditional employees is a precursor to a full transformation to largely gig-based employment or a stable development unto itself that has ushered in a career reality that’s likely to be here to stay for awhile.

What do you think?

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That’s shaping not only the career trajectories of individual knowledge workers, but also the practice of HR and management as teams incorporate more and more contingent workers employed on a project-basis. If you’re running a team made up of a mix of traditional employees and independent contractors, how can you ensure that the independent pros under your supervision feel as engaged and appreciated as long-term employees?

It’s a question author Alexandra Levit tackled recently on the American Express OPEN Forum blog, offering several tips to ensure your freelancers and independent pros feel like family. Her ideas include:

Recognize their value. Contract workers want to make a contribution quickly–they know their livelihood depends on it. So read their status reports and results summaries and illustrate the big picture so they can see how their work is fueling a greater mission.

Treat them like employees. When a contingent worker needs training to complete a new type of responsibility or keep current in her field, facilitate it. Give regular performance evaluations and gather survey feedback just as you would for any full-time employee. If you’re happy with his work, reward him by providing access to other people and opportunities within the organization. Don’t make your contract workers feel like a vendor who should be lucky to be working with your company and can replaced at any minute.

Engage in team building. Remote workers are more effective when they have solid relationships with their co-workers. If it’s feasible, introduce your virtual contract workers to each other and to their full-time team members in person, as this will build rapport and engender greater trust and cooperation. You should also invite remote contingent workers to visit your office, or pop into their locations from time to time. This shows that you actually care enough about the relationship to behave like a manager.

Don’t create a subculture. In their text Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Timothy Judge and Stephen Robbins suggest that subcultures often develop in organizations to reflect common problems, situations or experiences. What you don’t want is for a negative contingent worker culture to develop in the absence of guidance from management. If your contingent workforce is to be effective, your company’s leadership must go out of its way to ensure that members feel welcome and are effectively integrated into the larger organizational culture.

For more info on these tips, as well as statistics on the rise of independent workers, check out the complete post.

What tips would you add to Levit’s list?

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Do their expectations line up with those of freelancers and entrepreneurs? Do they get as much out of the coworking experience? The Second Global Coworking Survey aimed to answer these questions, with the results published recently in DeskMag.

The findings confirm that the number of employees working out of coworking spaces is steadily increasingly, currently making up about a third of coworking membership in the U.S. And it turns out these corporate coworkers come to their spaces with different problems and experience group working differently. Though all groups agree about some fundamentals – freelancers, entrepreneurs and employees are all satisfied with coworking at the same high rates, the survey found.

“Social networks are expanded, isolation is reduced and productivity increased – if not quite as markedly as the other two groups,” writes Carsten Foertsch of employee members in DeskMag. Everyone is satisfied and more plugged in, but the three groups focus on slightly different benefits of this sociability with entrepreneurs understandably more excited about the potential for interdisciplinary work, while freelancers, again unsurprisingly, see the highest gains in productivity.

What’s most the most important benefit for employees? This answer might comes as more of a shock. Despite usually having years of experience sharing offices with colleagues behind them, employees actually enjoy the social benefits of coworking more than other types of members. “Somewhat surprisingly, employees most often appreciate being a member of a community,” Foertsch reports. This is so even though they’re the least participatory members, making the least use of coworking space events.

Is there anything corporate types don’t like about coworking? The noise, apparently. “Volume… is an issue – with almost one in three bothered by the noise levels of the new workplace,” according to Foertsch, though unlike other types of coworkers, employees are content with spaces only opening during regular business hours.

All in all the results indicate that coworking is beneficial to corporate remote workers (though implying less than flattering things about the social vibe at most offices in the process) and offer no reason these three groups can’t play well together going forward. Even if corporate types aren’t the most actively engaged coworkers and are looking for slightly quieter facilities, it seems they’re fundamentally after the same things as independents and entrepreneurs.

Coworking space members, do all three groups agree on what they want from your coworking space?

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Not according to new research conducted by independent work consultancy MBO Partners released today. MBO defines independent workers as those “who work at least 15 hours a week in nontraditional, non-permanent full or part-time employment and self-identify as consultants, freelancers, contractors, self-employed.” Using a pair of surveys to study this sector, MBO uncovered some unexpected facts that show independent work is not just a young person’s game. Nearly five million Baby Boomers make up 30 percent of this workforce and, according to MBO, they’re thriving more than younger freelancers:

• Most Boomers (59 percent) actively chose to become independent.
• Of all those working independently they are among the most satisfied. 85 percent report satisfaction and 70 percent report high satisfaction, versus 58 percent for all age groups combined.
• They’ve done well as independents. The average income of the Boomer independent is $77,000.
• The vast majority of Boomers plan to continue work in the independent workforce over the next three years — only 8 percent plan to seek a traditional job.

These happy Boomer independents told MBO they enjoyed working solo for a number of less than surprising reasons, including the freedom and flexibility and ability to do work they consider meaningful. The research also found, however, that the particular struggles of older workers during the Great Recession played a role in pushing many towards independence “The Great Recession has resulted in a very weak traditional job market for aging Boomers. For many Boomers, going independent is their best or sometimes only job option,” concludes the report.

But while the troubled economic times may have driven some older professionals towards independent work, the statistics show that by and large they’re pleased to have made the switch. “In the face of recent financial uncertainty and a tumultuous job market, many in the Boomer generation have turned adversity into opportunity and taken charge of their lives by working independently,” said Gene Zaino, CEO of MBO Partners. In fact, 36 percent of Boomers actually feel more secure working independently.

All in all, the research paints a cheerful picture of Boomer independents and predicts that more workers in this demographic will make the shift. “About 8 million boomers are interested in going solo over the next two years,” according to MBO, which predicts “that roughly 1.2 million will actually make the jump to independent work,” within that time frame.

Does this report mesh with your experience — are Boomers in particular satisfied with the gig lifestyle and, if so, why do you think this is? 

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There are certainly limitations to this sort of broad brushstrokes description of who wins and who loses when the economy changes – subsets of populations may gain or lose more, other political or cultural forces complicate the chain of causation and obviously many individuals don’t fit the group average – but that doesn’t make these sorts of speculations 100 percent invalid either. So adding that hefty pinch of salt, what exactly does Susannah Breslin argue in her recent Inc.com column “Do Women Make Better Independent Contractors?”

Her case is that there are three main reasons that the ladies may be more suited to work as freelancers or independent contractors: their empathy, their creativity and their ability to handle the lifestyle. Before you start howling that a characteristic like empathy isn’t a pre-programmed characteristic of either gender, but instead is a cultural expectation women are taught, take note that’s exactly what Breslin is saying.

“Culturally, women are programmed to believe they excel at empathy,” she writes, concluding that whether it’s nature or nurture really doesn’t matter. It’s still a leg up: “As an independent contractor, it pays to be empathetic. It’s not about what you want. It’s about what the client wants.” The same goes for creativity:

According to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey… sixty-four percent of Americans declared women more creative, and 11 percent declared men more creative. My experience is that while both genders may have equal capacity to think creatively, it’s more culturally acceptable for women to employ their creativity than men…. Where men will fight—often effectively—for their vision, women are more likely to move into what I call “shape-shifter” mode, exploring various possible solutions to a challenge, rather than trying to drive one square peg through a round hole.

Finally, Breslin notes that being a freelancer isn’t exactly a secure gig, or one that conjures high status images in others – in fact it’s more likely to make folks picture you in your pajamas. And that, writes Breslin, bugs men more than women. “Men aren’t as comfortable with what the ad hoc lifestyle of the independent contractor might communicate — that they’re maybe less professional or perhaps unable to join the workforce because of an embarrassing social problem,” she writes.

Breslin isn’t the only commentator to have made this argument. Lindsey Donner, writing for the Young Entrepreneur Council last year, argued that the future of work is more female friendly, citing, like Breslin, women’s creativity, but also their relative ease with the kind of relationship building on which being a successful freelancer depends. “My sociability, my willingness to assign importance to emotional cheerleading, and my capacity to build personal relationships –virtually — have helped me cultivate a loyal client base,” she wrote, using her own experience as an example.

But there are also plenty of potential counter-arguments. Professional men have been in the independent contractor game for a long time, and many excel at it. In fact, the constant negotiation and advocating for yourself being a freelancer demands could be said to be better suited to men, who study after study shows are more likely to ask for what they want and stick up for themselves at work. And then there are the demands of raising kids, which while they should fall equally on both genders in current reality often don’t. Women might benefit more then from the defined hours, the pregnancy- and birth-covering health insurance and the relatively steady protective cocoon of a corporate job.

What do you think – is one of the genders better suited to the rise of the freelancer?

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Swart said that competition for talent is rapid, despite economic woes. He specified two big problems: getting work to workers, and the hiring process, in terms of investment of time and resources. How to deal with both those problems has been steadily evolving: Work 1.0 was rigid, single-employer, and on location, probably what describes your grandfather’s career. Work 2.0 was about more flexible work schedules, better collaboration between remote teams and some ability to take work home with you. It’s sort of the model that’s still in place at big tech firms in Silicon Valley.

Work 3.0 is where we’re at now and where a good chunk of work is heading, according to Swart, and it’s only just getting underway. It means “access to the best people no matter where they are in the world,” and the “ability to work with those people as if they’re in the room with you.” Swart says it’s a transparent process, one that takes place primarily online using tools with built-in reporting elements. It’s a very situation-based, ephemeral mode of staffing, too: He applied a movie production analogy: the team comes together to accomplish something specific, then separate again.

He discussed examples of companies forming in order to source and staff remote work projects. Thumbtack is one, which serves 170,000 customers today, Swart says, and provides access to the services of 230,000 service professionals in discrete areas for on-demand, just-in-time labor requirements.

In short, we’re moving from rigid, structured, non-specific workforces to on-demand, targeted transparent freelancer-based staffing. Doing so saves on infrastructure, by cutting back on costs like transportation and facilities, and also leverages talent on a global scale that otherwise might go unnoticed and unappreciated. Swart sees Work 3.0 as just getting started, with its most significant effects on how we do business yet to be felt.

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Corporations fail at authenticity not just in the sense of connecting with consumers as genuine when it comes to their products (though some have suggested mega brands will struggle as Facebook and the like acculturate us to expect greater authenticity and apparently personal relationships from brands). Instead, the great authenticity challenge of corporate American is in relation to workers.

Author Daniel Pink took to Fast Company recently to discuss this issue in relation to his book, Free Agent Nation. In the post, he explains that one of the biggest and least discussed drawbacks of climbing the traditional corporate ladder is a need to hide your true self. He writes:

As free agents around the country told me their stories, they repeatedly used the language of disguise and concealment to describe their previous jobs. They spoke of putting on “masks” or “game faces” at work. They talked about donning “armor” and erecting “smoke screens,” because exposing themselves in a large organization could be perilous. Only when they returned home after work could they shed the costumes and protective gear and return to being who they truly were.

The double life endured by many workers employed at big firms can be stressful and draining, according to Pink, who quotes industrial psychologist Peter Krembs to illustrate the point: “’Optimizing’ the organization almost necessarily means ‘suboptimizing the individual.’”

One of the great benefits of independent work, Pink concludes, is being able to more closely align who you are with what you do. But this collapse of work self and real self isn’t without its struggles.

“In free agency, work becomes more fully integrated with who you are. That can be rewarding. But because work is more deeply woven into yourself, it can be harder to cast off–which means work can occasionally consume and even smother identity,” he writes.

In your experience, do corporate jobs require a greater sacrifice of authenticity than independent work? Is gaining authenticity by working independently worth the increase in stress?

At Net:Work, we’ll explore how independent contractors, particularly those who work remotely, often struggle with stress and workaholism. The event will be held in San Francisco on Dec. 8.

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They’re out there, and their stories aren’t all the same tales of solo practitioners earning the ability to work in their bathrobes and take home a comfortable but not impressive income. When we talked to oDesk CEO Gary Swart earlier this month, he shared examples of members of his platform who had built businesses by growing their client base to the point where they couldn’t handle all the available work on their own. Joshua Warren, a Dallas-based web designer, Swart told WWD, is a perfect example of this new breed of independent contractor turned mini-mogul. He started on oDesk at $15 an hour, then:

[W]ithin months he stair steps his way from 15, to 30, to $85 an hour, and even at $85 an hour he has got more clients than he can handle and he’s making more money than he was at his traditional brick and mortar job in Dallas. What he figures out is he’s an entrepreneur. He stops turning away business; he creates his own firm. So in March of this year he created a company by the name of Creatuity, and he expects to do over a million dollars in business this year. And he now is hiring on oDesk.

This idea of the million-dollar freelancer might seem unlikely, but Warren isn’t the only one to manage it. IT pro Sanjay Dange, in Nagpur, India, used various online labor platforms like Freelancer.com and oDesk to build a million dollar company. He recently spoke to Entrepreneur Journeys about how he built up his business using these sites:

I wasn’t very sure about venturing into the overseas market… Our Indian operations were yielding an annual revenue of around INR 10 million ($204,332). However the profit margin was going down and competition was increasing due to new players coming in. That’s why we also thought of expanding our reach by entering into the overseas markets. At that time, Freelancer.com was GetAFreelancer.com. We thought of bidding on it for three to four hours a day….

We started getting small value orders in 2005. The first major order was from ZZPerformance.com, a Grand Prix components manufacturing company in the USA. The order was to deliver a complete e-commerce site. We took it at a very low price of $1,000. The project was quite big in terms of technical requirements and it took us five, six months to complete it. It gave us a major breakthrough. Since then, we have worked on hundreds of dynamic content management sites and e-commerce applications.

We started with a small office of 200 square feet and three people… Today, we have a total office space of 6,000 square feet in Surat and 2,000 square feet in Baroda. We have 100 people on our payroll. We are on Elance.com. We are on PeoplePerHour.com. We are on various contest sites such as LogoGuru.com, Hatchwise.com, 99designs.com and a few others.

Curious to learn more about Dange? Check out the lengthy interview for a lot more detail. Or read our interview with Shane Pearlman, who turned too much freelance work into a sort of thriving freelancers collective, no online labor platform required.

Do many of us have outmoded and overly limited visions of what independent work can be?

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Plenty, argues a recent piece by Rieva Lesonsky on MSN’s Business on Main site, which argues that the tepid pace of small business hiring, while obviously impacted by the dreadful economic situation as a whole, is partially down to rise of freelancers and platforms, like oDesk and Elance that enable small firms to find them. She cites a study from the Kaufman Foundation from earlier this year as evidence:

The Kauffman Foundation suggests the job deficit is actually not recession-related. In fact, Kauffman’s study, “Starting Smaller; Staying Smaller: America’s Slow Leak in Job Creation,” shows that new employer businesses have declined 27 percent since 2006. However, when newly self-employed workers are added to the mix, the level of startups hasn’t declined, but instead has “held steady or even edged up since the recession.”

To put this in perspective, in the 1990s, new businesses opened their doors with about eight employees; today, that’s down to five. The culprit? The traditional business model doesn’t apply anymore, due to a number of factors, including technology and a globalized market.

Essentially we’ve created a contingent, freelance economy. There’s still money to be made, innovations to be marketed and ideas to be harvested. The difference is that many businesses today are choosing to hire on an as-needed basis, relying on a freelance workforce.

Numbers from office space provider Regus earlier this month tell a similar story. A survey of 12,000 companies worldwide by the firm found “47 percent say they plan to hire freelance staff and 44 percent plan to hire remote workers over the next two years.”

But this decline in small business hiring might not be entirely a bad thing, according to a recent piece by James Surowiecki in the New Yorker. In it, he notes that while small businesses are beloved by politicians, they are less productive than large firms and therefore do less to raise living standards. Countries with miserable recent growth like Greece and Portugal have some of the highest percentages of workers employed by small firms, he also points out.

Maybe the rise of the freelancer will make for a more dynamic economy even if it means less small business hiring. Does that sound plausible to you? 

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