The Future World of Work: A Gen Xer’s Perspective
Wall Street Journal columnist Alexandra Levit parses today’s and
tomorrow’s job market for new grads.
For those of us who are members of generations X (born between 1961 and
1980) and Y (1980 – early 1990s), the future I always dreamed about is coming
up fast. Our careers are relatively young, and for those still in college, they
haven’t even begun yet. But already, technology is changing so quickly that we
can easily imagine future work lives that barely resemble
the ones we lead today.
As our baby-boomer parents age, we will become the leaders in an increasingly
complex world.
If we want to create thriving, sustainable careers that will easily withstand
the turbulence of the next few decades, we must anticipate the qualities of
the future work world. Here are a few ideas based on my own experiences
and my conversations with other workplace experts.
• Who we’ll be working with: In the coming decades, the baby boomers
will start retiring from their management positions in droves. We will have
to contend with the “brain drain” from those who leave the workforce,
boomers who remain employed underneath us for money or personal fulfillment,
and a large influx of immigrants.
• Who we’ll be working for: In the last decade, as American companies
have laid off millions of workers, the ideals of job security and employee loyalty
no longer apply. In the knowledge-driven economy of the future, large organizations
won’t be needed to create value, and our livelihood won’t be connected
to a single corporation. We’ll work for much smaller organizations that
outsource everything but the business’s core area of expertise, and more than
half of us will eventually become contingent workers, employed part time or
as freelancers or consultants.
• Where we’ll be working: We’ve already seen the model of everyone at the
same place, at the same time, begin to disappear. Now that we can be connected
regardless of our physical location, work activities will be distributed
across central offices, remote locations, and community locations. The typical
eight-hour workday will be spread across a 14-plus-hour window to allow us
to attend to needs at home and work with colleagues abroad.
• How we’ll be working: Our future workplace will be one of constant
change, innovation, and skill upgrading. Work projects will begin with one
set of goals, but will reinvent
themselves over and over again, so we’ll be
forced to think on the fly. Workers at all levels of the organization will be responsible
for devising creative strategies, and cross-functional teams will be
assigned for individual projects.
• What we’ll be working on: Future employers will rely on individuals who
are willing to work flexible hours and can leverage the latest technologies associated
with an Internet-oriented, nonstop marketplace. Technical skills will
only increase in importance, and as organizations continue to flatten, people in
all areas of the business will be responsible for administrative skills like budgeting,
hiring, and operations. From Generations X and Y, the organizations’
leaders will expect individuals who understand human behavior, can engender
cooperation, and can bring out the best in workers.
Sounds like an exciting time, doesn’t it? I think I’m going to look forward to
“going to work” in 2025