All pay no play for IT's yetties

HAMBURG - He between 20 and 30 years old, he's quick, flexible and works unflinchingly at night or at the weekend. He's a new breed of post-industrial worker, a yettie.

"He's a child of the New Economy who defines himself by his engagement in the IT [information technology] sector," says Betty Siegel, a sociologist at the Hamburg Trend Bureau.

"Work is the be-all and end-all for him," says Ms Siegel. "Different from the yuppie of the 1980s, the yettie cares little for suit and tie. His trademark is understatement."

At least, as far as appearances go. Yetties - the young, entrepreneurial, tech-based internet elite - know exactly what they have to do to sell themselves.

Germany's IT sector employs five per cent of the working population - around 1.8 million people. By 2003 that figure is expected to grow to 2.4 million.

With salaries often starting at more than 100,000 marks ($109,000) a year, that sort of life can have its advantages.

And many firms listed on Germany's Neuer Markt technology index have also made it a principle to share success with their employees in the form of share options.

The so-called New Economy is demanding: "Eight-hour days or 40-hour weeks are a thing of the past in IT," says Werner Senger of the Federation for Information and Communications Systems.

For the past two years, absolute flexibility and life between several cities has been a way of life for Hagen Kuehn. The 34-year-old project leader at a medium-sized software firm commutes every week between London, Frankfurt and company headquarters in Sankt Georgen, in the Black Forest.

While he admits that his family life suffers, he says he couldn't let such an opportunity go by.

But Andreas Boes, a sociologist at Darmstadt's Technical University, says: "The stock exchange mania will soon blow over. But we also have to see how long people will cope with the dilemma of having a job yet having to do without a social life or a family."

- NZPA