I saw this term, Continuous Partial Employment, used by Chris Anderson over the weekend and it’s been rattling around in my head ever since. Clearly, it’s a riff on Linda Stone’s concept of Continuous Partial Attention, which she defines as:

Continuous partial attention describes how many of us use our attention today. It is different from multi-tasking. The two are differentiated by the impulse that motivates them. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. We’re often doing things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing…. To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network.

Given the current state of the job market, Chris’ prediction of a future state of continuous partial employment could be cast in two very contrasting lights.

On the one hand, it would remove the stability that many individuals and families have come to rely on. As children we’re taught to go to school so we can get a good job. For many this means a life of waking up each morning, driving to a building and sitting at a desk or standing behind one. We work, then go home to spend a bit of time with our family or friends before calling it a day (often still checking email late into the night). Then, rinse and repeat. Over time, working at these jobs allows us to save a little extra so we can retire and live out our golden years.

For many in the western world, this is what employment looks like. And it’s been reasoanably safe and somewhat comfortable for decades. Alas, the current state of things is throwing a wrench into this security, and that is the negative light that the concept of continuous partial employment casts. As this notion of company as stabilizing force erodes so do the assurances of pensions plans, 401ks, health insurance and the 2-4 weeks paid vacation they once provided. And that a scary scene for many people.

On the other hand, continuous partial employment is an acknowledgement of the cultural shift away from the single company or career paths that so dominated the employment history of our parents. I, personally, don’t have any peers who’ve been at the same company their entire career. Quite the opposite in fact. Nearly everyone I know has jumped from company to company racking up experience points at large employers and vesting shares, ala mini angel investments, at promising startups. Some work like dogs while others take on only as much contract work as they want or need. Some commute to an office to spend face to face time with co-workers while others get all the work done they need from coffee shops or living rooms. They’ve traded the historical security of a company job with all of it’s accoutrements, for one with more freedom, but less safety nets.

It’s this shift towards personal entrepreneurship that I think is most compelling about the notion of continuous partial employment. As Tim riffed the other day:

This idea that you get a job from someone else rather than creating one through your own effort is fundamental to restarting the economy. Even if you do end up working for someone else, the kind of mind that says “It’s my responsibility to make something useful with my time” is one that is more likely to get brought into someone else’s enterprise than one that is just passively looking for a pre-determined slot.

We’re seeing an acceleration in services that enable the most micro of entrepreneurial enterprises to emerge without massive amounts of venture capital. From selling handmade goods to launching new consumer electronic devices, there are technologies, platforms and supply chains rising to meet this cultural shift.

And I believe that’s exactly what continuous partial employment is- a long term cultural shift. A shift from having a job to having a life. A life that work empowers and defines, not dictates and distracts. Work that let’s individuals define themselves by what they do, not what they have. Or, as Linda defines, work driven by a desire to be a LIVE node on our global network.

The implications of this shift are broad and disruptive. They will certainly have a deep impact on my business of backing startups and the future career paths of my children. Which is why this concept of continuous partial employment keeps rattling around in my head and why I wanted to start the conversation around it here.