Full-time employment is dying and here’s why

We are living in an age where full-time employment is a redundant concept.

I know what you are thinking! “What is this guy smoking?”

But hear me out…?

If you think about it, COVID-19 taught us that the world is a much smaller place than once thought and when it comes to working, we can do most work-related tasks from anywhere permitting that we have a stable internet connection.

So why are we still confined to the monotony of the ‘9-5’ and why do many companies force their teams to arbitrary work conditions? Such as our location, hours, and days.

To understand this, you have to understand the origins of the ‘9-5’…

Let’s go back in time to the 1920s… Jazz had just burst onto the music scene, the chocolate Reece’s pieces were invented and Charles Lindbergh successfully completed the first solo flight over the Atlantic Ocean.

At this time, the industrial revolution was also booming, and given the nature of the work, it was not uncommon for people to work 100 hours per week because factories needed to be tended to 24 hours a day.?

In 1926, the revolutionary and inventor of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, made a groundbreaking change by being one of the first companies to change his work policy to 40-hour weeks with five working days, with no change in wages.

However, this was not a philanthropic effort but rather to increase company profits. Henry Ford realised that if companies were to make a profit, customers needed to buy things; and in order to want to go shopping, customers needed to relax and enjoy themselves. For this, they needed more time off work.

In a 1926 interview with World's Work magazine, Ford said: "Leisure is an indispensable ingredient in a growing consumer market because working people need to have enough free time to find uses for consumer products, including automobiles."

"It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either 'lost time' or a class privilege," Ford also noted.

This step by Henry Ford inspired many companies across the world and soon almost all manufacturers adopted the Monday-Friday workweek.

Soon after, the united Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act for a 44-hour workweek in 1938, following it with an amendment two years later, where the duration was shortened to 40 hours

Whilst this makes for some interesting facts and insights for your upcoming Christmas parties (I know we are two months away but you should start preparing), this also demonstrates how antiquated the policies and conditions around our work patterns are.?

It is 2022, almost 100 years since Henry Ford inspired the change to a 40 hours and five days per week work-week, and many in full-time employment are still confined to this structure.?

This work structure was of course a far better policy for those living in the Industrial age but today we are in the digital age. The type of work has changed for many and this type of work can be conducted at any time and from anywhere providing we have an internet connection.

Today, we are seeing an upsurge in professionals demanding more flexibility, demanding better work-life balance and we have gone from having to center our lives around our work to wanting to center our work around our lives and although companies virtue signal their “intent” to want to provide a concrete “work-life balance” and “flexibility”, the reality is, to implement this for full-time employees it is not sustainable for company growth.?

This is why we are seeing CEO’s of big tech companies like Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Sudhar Pichai voicing their concerns about employee productivity.

There is a growing movement of people quitting their positions, in fact, 1 in 5 people will leave their jobs this year and granted many will jump out of the pot into the frying pan but many will realise that they can offer their services across the world to multiple companies at the same time.

From an employer standpoint, with an impending recession, there will be an upsurge in reliance upon a contingent workforce or professionals for projects to minimise risk whilst also achieving their organizational goals.?

Whatever way you look at it, there is an unsettled global workforce and I am of the opinion that this is due to people wanting freedom and autonomy over how, when and where they work.?

Something that does not fit into a full-time employment model.?

What do you think? Is full-time employment dying? Do people want more freedom over their work life and conditions?