The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of flow, as defined by Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 1997; Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988), for skilled professional contract workers who transitioned from permanent work to contract work. The study investigated the relationship between contract work and flow compared to the relationship between permanent work and flow experienced by skilled professional contract workers. Contract work was not new, but what was new was the type of people accepting contract work: college educated workers making more than $75,000 a year. With the increase in workers accepting contract work, the impact on their perception of flow experiences was not known.

The overall design of this study was a qualitative research interview study (Kvale, 1996; Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). There were two semi-structured interviews which provided the setting for a conversation with the end goal of gaining knowledge about the participants' perceived flow and optimal experiences at work both as permanent workers and contract workers. The participants were 6 skilled professional contract workers who were formerly permanent workers. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed, and content analysis was used to examine the interview responses. The examination of the interview responses attempted to understand the impact on flow and the flow conditions as skilled professionals transitioned from permanent work to contract work.

The extent to which the experiences of flow occurred as a contract worker when compared to the experiences of flow as a permanent worker varied among the participants. The frequency of the experiences of flow as a contract worker when compared to that as a permanent worker also varied by participant.

All of the flow conditions demonstrated by Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 1996, 1997) were confirmed in this study for the participants both as contract workers and permanent workers. In addition, there were several working conditions that emerged from this study that were related to the flow conditions. They were (a) organization complexity, (b) organization politics, (c) bonding with the organization and developing social networks, (d) expert community support, and (e) the perception of contract work.