{"id":15804,"date":"2018-05-02T05:04:58","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T12:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/?p=15804"},"modified":"2023-06-01T13:36:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T11:36:14","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-future-of-work-exo-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-future-of-work-exo-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things you need to know about the future of work"},"content":{"rendered":"

humI spent this past week on a yoga retreat. There were some interesting people there and we had some interesting conversations. Among other things, we talked about our motivation to work<\/strong> \u2013 in particular, why we worked. Would we work if we didn\u2019t need to? What motivates us? Money? Or something else? \u2026 things such as being needed, being important, contributing, meeting new people?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some people said they were home-schooling their children, which led to other interesting discussions about the future of economy and work<\/strong>. Which skills will our children need to make their way in the ever-changing world of tomorrow? Are those the same skills we were taught? Will they work? And if so, how?<\/p>\n

This week we celebrated Labour Day<\/strong>, on 1 May<\/strong>. A perfect occasion to recall the past and let one\u2019s imagination run wild and picture what the future may look like.<\/p>\n

The history of 1 May<\/strong> reminds us of the difficult conditions that work was associated with just over a century ago. Most people do not know that Labour Day<\/strong> originated in the United States, where it is not a public holiday today. In the late nineteenth century, workers were fighting for an eight-hour workday. And at its national convention in Chicago, the Federation of Labour Unions<\/strong> proclaimed the eight-hour workday, starting 1 May<\/strong> 1886. Even though this proclamation was made without employer consent, 300,000 workers across the country left their work earlier on that first day, which was the first celebration of 1 May in history<\/strong>. Today, it is an official holiday in 66 countries.<\/p>\n

Back then, work for most people meant going to a factory to make something. Throughout the twentieth century, many countries witnessed social advances such as health benefits and paid vacations. However, work remained pretty much the same: people would spend their time in the office, clocking the hours.<\/p>\n

Today, a different pattern has emerged: people work from home<\/strong>, work has become more creative\u2026 New technologies have changed the world so much in such a short period of time that we barely realize the depth of those changes. Changes that will accelerate and lead us to an entirely new way of working<\/strong>. Let\u2019s speculate a bit as to what that new world might look like.<\/p>\n

No more offices, but meeting places<\/h2>\n

In the industrial economy of the twentieth century, work took place exclusively at an office or at a factory. People spent very little time at home. Today, more and more people work from home<\/strong> at least part of the time, and only go into the office for meetings. That trend should accelerate and become the norm rather than an exception.<\/p>\n

With robots taking on more and more physical tasks, people\u2019s work is becoming less manual and less dependent on being physically present in a particular place. For many people, the computer is the main work tool<\/strong>. And with modern collaboration technologies<\/a>, people can work in digital workplaces<\/a> without having to go somewhere physically.<\/p>\n

With drone deliveries, vertical water-based farms, and solar panels, people can live and work in isolated places of their choosing as opposed to crowded cities. Imagine tomorrow \u2013 living in Hawaii, yet still working full time at whatever your job is, flying mainland once a quarter for a bunch of meetings.<\/p>\n

Stronger digital communities<\/h2>\n

The world is changing, but man\u2019s nature has not changed much since prehistoric times. We are, first and foremost, social animals who need to interact with peers. People need to be included in the social structure<\/strong>. People need recognition. We need to feel needed and useful. We need meaning.<\/p>\n

This need for a community<\/strong>, for social interaction<\/strong>, can be partially filled via online communities<\/a>, be they work related or interest related. We already see strong online communities<\/strong> emerging based on common interests such as science fiction, spiritual practices or gaming.<\/p>\n

In parallel, local communities<\/a> should gain new meaning.<\/p>\n

Less gender inequality<\/h2>\n

The eternal dilemma of work vs family should slowly move into the past. With more and more people working from home<\/strong>, the separation between men at the office and women at home ceases to exist.<\/p>\n

People spend more time at home. Consequently, family relationships become more important, and home activities more valued, and women feel less penalized for their \u2018absence\u2019 from the office.<\/p>\n

No more work, but creation<\/h2>\n

Manual work that demands no creativity will probably be carried out by machines in the very near future. Potentially, we may reach a point where work will no longer be an obligation, but a choice. We will run out of work<\/strong>. People will be required to create and express their unique talents, rather than repeat something that they\u2019ve been taught.<\/p>\n

That raises a lot of questions. What would people do all day if they do not need to work<\/strong>? How would they occupy themselves?<\/p>\n

Different work values<\/h2>\n

In the future, people should work for pleasure, not for money. We already see this slow change from our survey about work motivation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The younger generation doesn\u2019t seem to be as driven by career, efficiency and money as previous generations. Work meaning, social interaction<\/strong> and self-development are gaining traction every year, while the relative importance of compensation, in terms of job satisfaction, is on the decrease.<\/p>\n

In the future, the type of motivation that people will need is motivation towards self-realization, expressing one\u2019s unique potential, and creating a pleasant work environment<\/a>, \u2013 creating rather than toiling.<\/p>\n

This is what I believe the future of work<\/strong> will look like. Our children will need to be very different from us to thrive in a world of creativity rather than obligation. What do you think the future of work<\/strong> will look like? Leave a comment!<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\n\"Join
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
Join The eXo Tribe<\/a><\/div>\n


\nRegister for our Community to Get updates, tutorials, support, and access to the Platform and add-on downloads. Sign in Now!<\/strong>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"humI spent this past week on a yoga retreat. There were some interesting people there and we had some interesting conversations. Among other things, we talked about our motivation to work \u2013 in particular, why we worked. Would we work if we didn\u2019t need to? What motivates us? Money? Or something else? \u2026 things such […]","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[780],"tags":[649,610,757],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":15804},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-upgrade.exoplatform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}