The Future of Work In the future, work will be about more than just money or position. A researcher, a consultant and a Personnel Manager of an international corporation tell us what exactly. : :
used to be so much better: we had more time, longer lunches, fair bosses and no need to take work home with you. On top of that, you could keep the same job for your entire career if you wanted. Well, that might have been the case in the past. That’s great, but there’s no use crying over the bygones. Those days will not return. It’s simply better to accept the new ways of working that the future has to offer. When you take a positive approach, you might even find some sense in them. In the end of the 1980s a man in his twenties became known in Finland for his views on technology, media culture and society. This young man said his life was built on networks and that his work was fast, dynamic and made up of consistent movement from one project to the next. His opinion was, that the border between work and leisure had faded away. Finns listened to him with astonishment. The man’s name was Sam Inkinen. Back then, he was a nerd and a communications professional, today he is a Ph.D., a researcher of media and future, and an author speaking on the importance of education. He is orientated in questions on society and identity, digital media and the problems of creativity. At present, a great number of people lead similar working lives as
the one he described in the 80s, a model characterised by projects and processes. And no one is laughing anymore, unlike twenty years ago. “It should be made clear, that the change in working life and society is not stable. Different people and organisations experience it in different ways. However, some principal characteristics can be observed. The industrial age is changing into an age of information and services, where experiences, innovations and creative work based on information are emphasised,” Inkinen says. Agricultural and industrial societies were paced by precise schedules, hierarchy and tasks based on repetition and predictability. In the knowledge work of the future, it is natural that work doesn’t necessarily take place during office hours. In the new culture of work, hours are flexible and you have to be available nearly all the time. On the other hand, the nature of working becomes more liberated. The thought of work being pleasing and creative has become acceptable. “Certain fields have operated by this model for a long time already. Inventors, artists, researchers and freelance writers, for example. Their daily schedule makes it difficult to say when work begins or ends.”
However, the reformation of work is filled with paradoxes. One is, that many organisations still seem to appreciate physical presence and employees sitting by office desk computers as rigidly as possible.
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