What the heck is the future of work?

Let’s talk about the future of work.

But first, let’s talk about George.

George arrives at work every morning after dropping off his family, and puts his feet up at his desk. He works with smart tech and robotics all day, videoconferencing with his boss when needed.

George’s workweek is light – an hour a day, 2 days a week – but he finds his job exhausting. His relationship with his boss is volatile - he is frequently fired and re-hired.

Is George’s life the future of work?

It certainly seemed to be so in 1962, when the cartoon featuring George and his family’s adventures in 2062 – The Jetsons – premiered.

With the benefit of almost 60 years’ hindsight, the show’s creators weren’t far off.

Many, many workers perform their jobs with a generous dose of assistance from technology, and videoconferencing, thanks to COVID-19, is pervasive. Workers remain stressed, exhausted, and sometimes at odds with management. Job insecurity is a reality for millions.

Sadly, the 2-hour workweek has not yet come into vogue.

We might ask: what does the future of work look like now?

But behind that good and interesting question lies a far more vital one: why are we so interested in this idea of the future of work?

The question of why helps us understand the many and often confusing ingredients in the amorphous soup of ideas that today constitutes “the future of work,” which spans everything from Agile processes to the use of artificial intelligence to the gig economy to yoga at your desk.

In fact, the reason the idea of the future of work is so messy and poorly defined is that the overarching concept is trying to contain three ideas that are often in conflict with each other:

1.   We want to shape the future of work to create better results for companies.

2.   We want to shape the future of work to create better experiences for workers.

3.   We want to shape the future of work to create a positive impact on society.

To bring these conflicts to life, let’s look at a commonly cited example of the future of work – a particular piece of automation called algorithmic management. 

Being managed by a robot might sounds Jetsons-level futuristic, but to some degree this “future of work” concept is already a reality across a variety of roles.

At its simplest level, algorithmic management occurs when a software system takes in data about a worker, makes automated decisions based on that data, offers “nudges” to shape that worker’s behavior based on the decisions it’s made, and feeds the resulting analytics through to leadership as well as performance and reward systems. 

Perhaps the most prominent use of algorithmic management is in the ridesharing world, where drivers’ behavior is monitored by systems in real-time that then affect what rides they are offered next, as well as how well they are paid.

Does algorithmic management represent a desirable future of work for companies? Absolutely. Imagine trying to manage an Uber- or Lyft-scale global fleet with a network of dispatchers. Algorithmic management is central to the data- and efficiency-driven business model for these companies.

From a worker’s perspective, though, algorithmic management might not be the future they’re looking for.

Algorithms can be difficult to calibrate against human behavior – and “ask” for things to be done in timing that’s not feasible. Because algorithms can be adjusted by leadership on the fly, many workers have noted that just like human bosses, the algorithms can behave unpredictably, asking for very different behaviors in similar situations.

 Even when algorithms are consistent, some workers have figured out how to game the system to create better outcomes for themselves – a classic example being ridesharing drivers who switch off their availability en masse to create artificial surge pricing, then switch back on to take advantage of the higher rates generated.

Finally, does society benefit from algorithmic management? To date, the answer is a resounding “maybe.”                     

The efficiencies created have generated economic growth, but the demands of stringent algorithms have also led to safety incidents - picture ridesharing drivers racing to complete trips in the timing the algorithm rewards.

Our initial experiences of algorithmic management make the point clear: when we talk about the future of work, it’s important that we talk about whose desired future of work we’re discussing.

Treating the future of work as an inevitable conclusion – or pretending that it’s a universally altruistic exercise – ignores the critical fact that this concept is being shaped, in real time, by human beings with very real and often conflicting motivations. 

Across the coming months, I’ll be looking at the good, the bad, and the ugly across a host of concepts that have been cited as “the future of work” – AI/human partnership, Agile processes, job crafting, the Open Source movement, the physical reinvention of the office environment, remote/flexible work, the gig economy, and corporate wellness. Which of these ideas truly represents a positive future, and which are fads drummed up by a burgeoning “future of work industry?”

Ultimately, I’ll look at the “future of the future of work” – in a time of seismic disruption, how are our views of the future of work changing? Are new ways of working emerging that truly merit pursuing?

Because the future of work should be a practical question, not an ivory tower exercise, my goal on this journey is to offer pragmatic suggestions – based on Korn Ferry’s experience helping transform workforces - aimed at the three groups the future of work matters to: individual workers, organizations, and society.

After all, one of the most resonant critiques of the future of work discussion today is that the guidance being offered is difficult or even impossible to enact. It’s not enough to settle on an optimistic-but-reasonable future of work – you have to be able to start the journey toward it.

So thanks for coming along for the ride.

If you have suggestions for “future of work” topics, or views on where this is all headed, please throw them in the comments.

I’m looking forward to the discussion.