Catharina Bruns is disillusioned. After the federal elections, the coalition government promised to improve the framework conditions for the self-employed. But now, in the middle of the crisis, many self-employed people feel left in the lurch. The reason, according to Catharina Bruns: Germany is a country of employees, self-employment is not understood. This is why the entrepreneur is fighting ever louder for the right to work outside of a permanent position - and also explains why Monday is her favorite day.

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Ms. Bruns, what have you done recently?

Most recently, more normal things that I need for my everyday life. But I know what I'm going to buy next: a new laptop. The keyboard on my old laptop is broken.

So how do you write e-mails at all?

More bad than good. I often type letters twice and the "e" is now broken out. So if I have spelling mistakes in my texts, it's only 50 percent down to me.

As a permanent employee, your employer would now provide you with a new laptop. Are these moments when you regret being self-employed?

No, I never regret that, I like being self-employed. As an employee, I don't have free reign over my time, I don't have the space to start my own projects and develop the way I want to. I don't need an employer, a boss who decides whether I can go to work. I prefer to work without guidance.

Has that always been your thought process?

After graduating, I initially had a normal white-collar job. However, I quickly realized that I felt uncomfortable. I had the impression that my whole week had been stolen from me. I was constantly working through tasks without making any personal progress or learning anything exciting. Then I started to think seriously about what work means to me and started blogging about it. At the age of thirty, I finally quit because I realized that I simply wasn't a good employee.

What did you do then?

My blog got more and more readers - and some of them liked my inspiration so much that they asked me if there were any posters with my statements on them. So I became more and more of a "one-woman design studio". My blog at the time, "workisnotajob", consisted of typo design inspiration, i.e. these graphics that put a message on posters, mugs or notebooks - today the whole Internet is full of them, back then it wasn't like that.

But this project didn't stop there, did it?

I founded "supercraft" in 2012, together with Sophie Pester, who now runs the company on her own. In principle, "supercraft" sells creative time. It is a subscription model for craft boxes. Similar to cooking boxes, the right materials and instructions are already included, but the customer has to do it themselves. I celebrate people who want to take responsibility and work independently. That's why I founded "Happy New Monday" in 2017, to creatively support female founders and self-employed people in realizing their ideas.

How did you come up with the name "Happy New Monday?"

I'm annoyed by this inflationary "hands up, weekend" mood that is often broadcast on the radio on Fridays. As if everyone is just dragging themselves through the week and working towards the weekend. But that shows what kind of work culture apparently prevails in this country. I actually like Mondays, I'm relaxed and the week is still fresh and full of possibilities.

But isn't that an incredibly privileged situation to be in? For many people, money is tight and they are dependent on their work.

I am also dependent on my work. And of course it's also a privilege that I've earned to a certain extent. But first and foremost, it's a decision. Unlike in the past, when only rich heirs could set up a business or needed their own factory, self-employment is now open to more people. For many business ideas, founders don't need a lot of capital, but above all a good concept. Thanks to digitalization and the internet, entrepreneurship is possible in a completely different way today.

If starting up has become easier - why do so few people take the plunge into self-employment?

I find this phrase - "taking the plunge into self-employment" - really bad. As if self-employment is the exception and permanent employment is the norm. But no one is born to become an employee. On the contrary: as children, we are encouraged to become and think more and more independently. We all used to want to build things, create something, be free. And suddenly, at work, this self-confidence changes. This also has a lot to do with the fact that independence is no longer valued in Germany.

In what way?

Firstly, there are many false images of founding. Either it is confused with old entrepreneurship, i.e. rich industrialists, or reduced to hip start-up boys. But self-employment means diversity. The majority of self-employed people are solo entrepreneurs, many of them women, and small businesses. There are thousands of ways to start a business. But self-employment is not provided for in the statutory social security system, for example. The assessment of contributions for statutory health insurance is not fair for the self-employed; for example, income from rental income or investments is also taken into account. Self-employed people too often have the feeling that everything in Germany is working against them, even though they want to make an offer to society and be independent. This is also illustrated by a particularly severe example that I came across recently.

What have you discovered?

A job center in Kaiserslautern had published a job advertisement looking for a coach for a course aimed at jobseekers with a migration background. According to the advertisement, the coach was supposed to convey to the participants that self-employment was a bad decision - the course was probably deliberately aimed at people who wanted to start their own business. That's terrible: someone comes to Germany, perhaps has a good idea, wants to start up and is talked out of it. And even if the idea was bad, even the worst entrepreneur in the world is entitled to information and not to be pushed in one direction. Fortunately, the invitation to tender has now been adjusted.

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Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Catharina Bruns, 42, is an entrepreneur, author and activist for fair conditions for the self-employed. She is a freelance creative and founder of Happy New Monday, a company that helps self-employed people and founders turn their ideas into reality. She is considered an important voice for self-employment and new entrepreneurship in Germany.

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