Back in the day, many people had a job for life. Today, the average number of jobs a person might have in their lifetime is six. In future, trends suggest we'll have 6 jobs at once.
I resemble that remark. This year I've found myself saying I have 5 jobs. 1 for each day of the week.
Mainly, I run my own business, Creative Contingencies, and have done so since 1997. But I'm also
- a member of the Open Invention Network's global licensing team,
- on the Drupal Watchdog team at Tag1 Consulting,
- on the board of the Drupal Association and also
- chair of the Drupal community working group.
Two of those jobs are voluntary. Being involved in the open source community is awesome. But sometimes it can be tricky. This morning I was reading an interview with Karen Sandler about "what we mean by we". I was struck by this bit in particular.
"There are blurry lines everywhere in FOSS: between what is personal and what is professional, between volunteers and paid contributors, between non-profit organizations and for-profit companies, and even between the ideological and commercial goals that motivate the work."
We are often asked to compartmentalise these things. I'm not always able to do so. I'm always me. Whichever hat I happen to be wearing.
Photo: Juggling Hats by Usien, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0