In order to look at what the future holds for work, we need to look back. A retrospective on how we got to the present. At least the present that existed before the world, and work, was turned on its head by a global pandemic.
Before the Industrial Revolution, in the nineteenth century, work was mostly something we did outside. With our hands, not our heads. Toiling in fields. Following the seasons. Literally, making hay whilst the sun shined.
Frederick Taylor, Henry Ford and their ilk, brought us the rigidity of working in factories. Every man, and woman, with their one job to do. Part of a long production line of manual labour, overseen by the omniscient boss. A well oiled machine. Scientifically managed, clocking in, and clocking out after many hours toil.
The 1980s and 1990s heralded the introduction of the personal computer. Whilst we would still work with our hands, the main processing power would be coming from our brains. Large behemoths, called servers, sat humming menacingly in dark data centres, connecting all the little machines together. Suddenly we could talk together without actually talking. We could send packets of data over the newly created networks, allowing us to communicate without being in the same room.
This was revolutionary. Imagine being able to exchange ideas without having to be in the same office. We could work remotely. And people tried. Until they discovered just how slow those servers were. How long it took those messages to reach their colleagues. And so ended a brief experiment with working from home.
Fast forward to 2020. We’ve had the technology for a number of years to effectively support more knowledge workers working remotely. Yet we haven’t evolved the managerial mindset to support it.
Pre COVID19 there were still large tracts of management who just didn’t believe they could trust their workforce if they couldn’t see them. As if by sheer power of being able to watch people at their desks meant that we could rely on them to work. And work hard. How could we manage them if they were at home?
It was straight out of Taylor’s playbook. People being machines that needed to be managed.
Then, overnight, the world entered into the biggest ever collaborative experiment. Knowledge workers around the globe started working from home. Managers had the rug swept out from under them. How could they possibly manage all these people who were now not in the office, making sure they were being productive?
Enter the full day of video meetings. More meetings than you ever had in the office, but at least we could now see how busy you were. If you weren’t on a video call, were you slacking off? Perish the thought that you may have actually been working. On producing the outcomes that you know were important for that week.
People soon started to burn out. The relentless demand to be always on. Never away from your workstation. There was no commute anymore so surely you could squeeze in a couple more hours of work. Lunch was in the kitchen, just steps from your workspace. Maybe have your sandwich whilst on the next video call. On and on it went.
2020 will not go down in the annals of our best working years. We were happier, and much more productive when we were in the office. Counter intuitive? Without the distractions of the pervasive open plan office. And without the bus, or train ride into the city, we should have more time for both us, and work. Shouldn’t we?
So we look to the future. To learn from our mistakes. Take the best of what we had, and improve upon it. But what does this good look like?
Is it a balance of remote work, and office based collaboration? Will we see a large scale return to the gleaming towers that dominate our cities skylines?
One thing that will doubtless need to change, is the role managers see themselves playing in the future of work. Now that she has seen that teams can be productive, even without her watchful gaze, will the leader of the future now focus on the bigger picture. Freed up from micromanaging, is it time to consider strategy. The direction of the company. The competition.
The silver lining coming out of 2020, and shaping the future of work, could be more empathetic leadership, steering organisations onto greater success, whilst nurturing happier teams in the process. Here is hoping.
Credits:
Created with images by Artem Maltsev - "Female burden is not only her bag. It is something that everywhere with her. Burden is your life experience and results of your made decisions. With her bag she can carry and all problems that she has. This photo is part of my project where i want to understand what female burden nowadays exists and how it is connected with her life." • Natalya Letunova - "untitled image" • Celpax - "Office worker pressing a green smiley on a feedback kiosk, rating her workday"