What is new work?
The term new work refers to a concept that deals with an idea of ”new work” that includes the current upheavals in the world of work and in the global social climate, such as digitization, pandemic, sustainability and demographic change. In plain language, this means: The work is reconsidered and, above all, rethought. Randstad Deutschland GmbH recently published the New Work Study. It provides answers to the question of how work has changed, what it looks like or should look like in the future and opens up opportunities to actively shape these changes.
Originally, the term and the idea of new work goes back to the philosopher Frithjof H. Bergmann (1930-2021). Bergmann developed the New Work framework in the 1980s as a reaction to capitalism. In the meantime, the term has been removed from its former meaning and describes measures, observations and wishes as to how the professional world is changing.
post growth
Wanted by many, feared by many and yet an irrefutable fact: the age of long-vaunted growth is over. This has something to do not only with social change, but also with the fact that continuous growth is always associated with exploitation, either through the consumption of finite resources such as oil, metals or space, or through the inappropriate and unfair treatment of people and their workforce . The planet and global society reached their limits long ago and it is becoming increasingly clear that it can’t go on like this.
Instead of insisting on further growth, the economy, companies and employees should prepare for the time of post-growth, in which capitalist ideas of career and success recede into the background. They are being replaced by values that are no longer necessarily linked to hard factors such as income level and status symbols, but are linked to soft factors such as meaningfulness, creative freedom and the compatibility of work and private life.
sense economy
Industrialization, the development of robots and artificial intelligence (AI) mean that a large number of tedious, monotonous and repetitive tasks are being performed by machines. This trend will continue, which is why fewer and fewer people will be employed in this type of work. This brings skills such as creativity and empathy back into focus. Solving future tasks determines actions and creates a new sense of work. In the so-called economy of meaning, a changed understanding of progress, in which the best and not the newest product is the most valuable, is implied. But this is not only relevant for products, but also for structures within the company.
Work-life blending
The former work-life balance is as good as obsolete. Work-life blending takes its place. The boundaries between work and private life are blurring, not least because more flexible working is possible. A smooth transition between work and private life enables employees to react flexibly to private circumstances, to work independently and thus be more productive. This makes for happier workers as work adapts to life and not the other way around. However, the concept of work-life blending also harbors the risk of disregarding one’s own limits and thus losing the feeling of relaxation and structure.
Work-life blending has long been an issue for the self-employed and some companies that are more willing to experiment, such as Google, but it has to be discovered and implemented individually for everyone.
flexible work
The focus of the new way of working is clearly flexibility. This is closely related to work-life blending and also to digitization. Work must adapt to the circumstances of everyday life and lifestyle, not the other way around. This can take the form of somewhat looser working hours and even digital nomadism or modern nomadism to lead.
Working hours are no longer understood as a weekly continuum, but as a flexible contingent that can be adapted to individual situations and phases of life. The 30-hour week full-time sometimes makes more productive, reduces sick leave and is therefore likely to become the new standard, as is already being tested in some countries. The flexible distribution of this working time over the hours of the day when you feel most productive is also being integrated more and more.
The place of work will also be flexible. It doesn’t matter whether you are in favor of working from home, with a “work“, i.e. a working holiday from a different time zone, working off your hours, or you prefer the social and structured everyday work in the office, there are solutions for everything. Depending on the company and activity, there will be more or less flexibility here.
digitalization and automation
Unfortunately, Germany was always a little behind when it came to digitization. The last few years have changed that and the trend is going in exactly that direction. A digital work environment, video conferences and digital tools for project and knowledge management became standard within a very short time.
More and more companies are also relying on the use of artificial intelligence. Especially with monotonous activities, machines work longer and better – with the same quality. With digitization comes automation and robotization at the same time. As a result, some jobs will be lost, but there is now more room for creative work. However, empathy, intuition, creativity and environmental awareness cannot be replaced by technology, which is why companies will create a work environment in which all of these are encouraged.
05/16/2022