Tag: Work

When work disappears – What do we do with people whose livelihoods are destroyed? [Article]

Megan McArdle worries about the not-so-distant days when work starts to disappear:

 In much of the industrial world, it seems to be increasingly difficult for people to earn a decent living without a fairly elite set of skills–or an elite set of credentials that mimic skills, like a BA in English Literature from an Ivy League institution. The ability to earn a decent living, either yourself or as part of a family, is one of the basic criteria for a decent life.

The burgeoning Robot Middle Class [Article]

Contrast the MIT Tech Review article wondering how a mass influx of robots affects human employment, to  the International Labour Organisation’s report which warns of social unrest and growing unequality as number of unemployed people worldwide continues to grow.

Imagining the possible future scenarios for middle-class unemployment is a first step to considering ways in which we can preserve our quality of life given the robotic future that will meet us. Without doubt, robots can greatly improve many lives, offering everything from smart prosthetics to home care for the aging. But for humans, the robot future is a mixed bag. [MIT article] 

“In advanced economies, unemployment spells have lengthened and more workers are becoming discouraged and dropping out of the labour market altogether. This not only has adverse consequences on individuals and their families, but also can weaken previously stable societies, as opportunities to advance in a good job and improve one’s standard of living become the exception rather than the rule” [ILO report]

Work, Life, Parenthood & balance – can these words be all used in one sentence? [Transcript]

David Weinberger live-blogging a talk at the Mesh conference by Ryan Carson of Treehouse. 

“As a father, I realize I’m going to die, sooner rather than later. If I work four days a week, I can send 50% more of my life with my wife and kids.”

Giving meaning to work [Article]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote “If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely, to mete out to him the most terrible punishment … all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.”  Maria Popova shares the wisdom on How to find fulfilling work by the philosopher Roman Krznaric (a prize if you can pronounce that on the first try!)

…The message of the ‘grin and bear it’ school of thought is that we need to accept the inevitable and put up with whatever job we can get, as long as it meets our financial needs and leaves us enough time to pursue our ‘real life’ outside office hours. The best way to protect ourselves from all the optimistic pundits pedaling fulfillment is to develop a hardy philosophy of acceptance, even resignation, and not set our hearts on finding a meaningful career. I am more hopeful than this, and subscribe to a different approach, which is that it is possible to find work that is life-enhancing, that broadens our horizons and makes us feel more human.

Working from Home – David Weinberger weighs in [Blogpost]

Marisa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, has, in an apparent attempt to turn around the ailing giant, recently banned telecommuting (or working from home, as it’s commonly known as) for all employees. David Weinberger, a senior researcher at the Harvard Berkman Centre for Internet & Society, weighs in with his thoughts on why he disagrees with the decision.

Workplace productivity & survelliance [Articles]

According to a recent internal memo, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer is not in favour of the ‘technologically forward’ working from home concept. Despite being touted as a progressive idea for many occupations that do not require a physical presence in the office, working from home is apparently no longer finding favour with management, citing loss of ‘productivity’.  As this Salon article points out, Tesco is taking productivity to another level (or sinking to a new low – whatever your perspective), by using high tech survelliance to track employees.Collaboration, folks, is the new corporate buzzword, so expect to be in the office more & longer.

How much should we really work? [Article]

I thought it was another joke about the ever shortening work-week, but no it isn’t. James W Vaupel, head of the new Danish Max Planck research center says the 40 hour week (for some of those lucky folk) is outdated. He proposes instead that we work only 25 hours a week, but work until we turn 80.  Spreading out working hours over the full course of a person’s life, Vaupel argues, is both psychologically and physically beneficial at all stages of life.

How to avoid work [Article]

Advice from the 1950’s from a career counselor, William J Reilly rings true to this day. As he says in his book, How to Avoid Work, “life really begins when you have discovered that you can do anything you want.” This echoes what Thomas Edison said when asked about his secret to success. ” You do something all day long, don’t you? Everyone does. If you get up at seven o’clock and go to bed at eleven, you have put sixteen good hours, and it is certain that you have been doing something all that time. The only difference is that you do a great many things and I do one. If you took the time in question and applied it in one direction, you would succeed. Success is sure to follows such application. The trouble lies in the fact that people do not have one thing to stick to, letting all else go.”

Alain de Botton – Pleasures & Success of Work [TED Talk]

If you’ve not heard Alain de Botton‘s keen & (witty observations), & are (or know someone who is) in a job-threatening situation, well worth the 15 minutes of your busy life! “Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.”