Discuss the following questions with your partner, then report to the class.
1. Fifty years ago, experts predicted that in the future people would work less, and have more free time for themselves and their families. How true has this become? How likely is this to change in the future?
2. In some companies workers choose their own hours. If you choose your perfect working week, how will you do it? Think about working hours, free time, days off, flexi-time, weekends, meetings, holidays, lunchtime
Reading (1)
Read the text. Does your perfect working week comply with the predictions given in the text? Summarize the main ideas of this article; the subheadings may help you.
Futurist predicts
SOME JOBS TO COME, SOME JOBS TO GO
Jobs are disappearing, but there’s still a future for work. Automation and information are changing the economic landscape and forcing workers to forge new career paths beyond outdated ideas about permanent employment. Industries that undergothis impact won’t disappear, but the number of jobs that they support will change drastically.
Since 1970, manufacturing jobs as a percentage of total employment have declined from a quarter of payrolls to less than 10%. These jobs will probably not be replaced in the future. This is a part of transition toward a postindustrial economy. Jeff Dachis, a founder of Razorfish, coined the phrase ‘everything that can be digital, will be.’ To the extent that the world becomes more digital, it will also become more global. The question is, what is the future of work, and what can we do about it?
EMERGING TRENDS
The old model of work provided an enormous level of predictability. In previous eras, people had a sense of job security and knew how much they would earn on a monthly basis. This gave people a certain sense of confidence in their ability to maintain large amounts of debt. The consumer economy thrived on this system for more than half a century. Location-based and formal jobs will continue to exist, of course, but this will become smaller slices of the overall economy.
The new trends for the workplace have significantlyless built-in certainty. We will all need to rethink, redefine, and broaden our sources of economic security. To extent that people will be developing a broader range of skills, we will also become more resilient and capable of adapting to change. Finally, we can expect that people will redefine what they truly need in a physical sense and find better ways of fulfilling their needs.
Fixed hours, fixed location, and fixed jobs are quickly becoming a thing of the past for many industries as opportunities become more fluid and transient. The 40-hour workweek is becoming less relevantas we see more subcontractors, temps, freelancers, and self-employed. Uncertain economics make long-term employment contracts less realistic, while improvements in communications make it easier to subcontract even complex jobs to knowledge workers who log in from airports, home offices, and coffee shops.
WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT
Imagine an office where meetings will be optional. Nobody will be talking about how many hours they worked last week. People will have an unlimited amount of vacation and paid time off. Work is done any time and anywhere, based entirely on individual needs and preferences. Finally, employees of all levels will be encouraged to stop doing anything that is a waste of their time, their customers’ time, or the company’s time.
There is a catch: quality work needs to be completed on schedule and within budget. As a result people will be happier with their lives and their work, the companies will benefit, too, with increases in productivity. The companies will provide space and opportunity for people that don’t have it. Getting office space in the traditional sense can be an expensive proposition with multiyear leases, renovation costs and monthly utilities. If companies can build support systems to benefit workers, wherever they are and if they are formally employed or not, then we will be able to view the changes sweeping across society as opportunities to return to a fuller more genuine, and more honest way of life.
(adapted from the article “Two Billion Jobs to Disappear by 2030, by Thomas Frey,
Journal of Environmental Health, June 2012)
2. Answer the following questions:
1. What changes are industries undergoing? Why?
2. What were the most important features of the old model of work?
3. What trends will emerge in the workplace?
4. What workplace improvements will people have in the future?
