On Work...
Severance Season 3 was recently announced! For those who are not familiar with the dystopian hit series this is about a workplace where employees have a chip implanted and have their memories erased at the end of the working day.
This is a work of fiction of course, but it speaks to the important question of the meaning and changing attitudes to work. In a world where your work self and the ‘other’ are severed what is the meaning of ‘bring your whole self to work’? And what impact does that have on the ability to tap into the potential that resides within all of us. The multi-faceted nature of people, the differences, is where value and potential can be found, unlocked, and realised for the benefit of business, the economy and society.
The seminal management theorist Charles Handy, who coined the term ‘portfolio career,’ talked about a world where most of the working population will be self-employed or part-timers, temporary workers or out of paid work altogether. They would hold a portfolio of different bits and pieces of paid work, or a collection of different clients or customers. Over the last two decades we have seen the increasing prevalence of new forms of employment with a rise in self-employment and the gig economy.
However, whilst employment has expanded with seemingly more opportunities to be actively engaged in the global economy, the precarious nature of some of these new forms of employment impacts our ability to maximise the productive potential of people and can result in adverse effects for business, the economy, and society.
The technological shifts are also accelerating the changes in the structure of labour markets and availability of work.
Evolution of the world of Work
According to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) 2025 Trends report global employment expanded in 2024, however half of the global labour force and more than 90% of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), is engaged in informal work. The IMF says that 60% of all workers engage in unregulated jobs. On average, informal work represents 35 percent of GDP in low- and middle-income countries versus 15 percent in advanced economies.
Closer to home we have also witnessed a significant increase in new forms of employment in Europe. According to data published by Eurofound, 2020 new forms of employment now exist in most EU member states, Norway, and the UK alongside the increase in the number of solo self-employed workers and freelancers.
According to the ONS (Office for National Statistics) Labour Force Survey, the number of people who are self-employed increased from 3.3million in 2001 to 4.8 million in 2017 and stands at 4.4million in 2024, whilst the number of people with zero-hour contracts increased fivefold since 2001. The trend of increasing self-employment was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is now back to pre-COVID levels.
Many new employment forms are driven by the need for flexibility of employers/clients or workers. However, in the absence of a clear legal framework and regulation, the precarious nature of these new forms of employment reduces workers’ protection and compounds inequalities. Additionally, any economic benefits, such as tax revenues and GDP contribution, are not being realised. Appropriately formulated minimum wages, social security, and active labour market policies-including job search assistance and appropriately formulated apprenticeship programmes- are good for worker productivity and help smooth consumption in challenging times.
Working practices and culture
For most of the 20th century work involved going into a separate physical place with clear boundaries between work and personal life. With COVID-19 those barriers broke down and this gave rise to two key paradoxes: either yearning for that strict demarcation or keeping the boundaries blurred.
According to Gillian Tett , author of Anthro-Vision, we have seen two important shifts in the social fabric that led to these emerging paradoxes: one is the move away from trusting authority figures to trusting peer groups, as well as a desire for people to pick-n-mix their professional lives, as they are now able to do with other aspects such as their music choices. People want to go into the office on their own terms and trusting their peer group more than anyone in charge.
For the first time in Randstadt’s Workmonitor 22-year history, work-life balance has surpassed pay as the leading motivator. Compensation is still important, but talent is more focused than ever on finding other ways to feel fulfilment. We are also seeing rising employee activism with employees willing to take a stance, and 1 in 3 reporting to have quit a job because they did not agree with the viewpoints or stances of the leadership at their organisation.
According to Adam Grant , organisational psychologist at Wharton Business School, some business practices and conventions should be consigned to the past to move forward. He cites traditional interviews that could be overhauled to allow candidates to demonstrate skills such as agility and capacity for learning and progression by giving them a second chance if they do not perform well in the first interview. He also cites replacing the corporate ladder with a “corporate lattice” to drive innovation. Employees would be free to pitch ideas to anyone in the hierarchy above them, and if it gets a green light, they can move forward with it.
The organisational hierarchies that we have built over many years no longer align with the new workplace reality and workforce expectations. We need to continue to re-think the practices and ways of working that originated in the industrial age to maximise the productive potential of people.
The role of AI technologies
A lot has been written about how AI technologies will impact jobs and workers.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, by 2030 20% of jobs worldwide are expected to have evolved significantly due to labour market disruptions and expect that the various changes could create 170 million jobs but displace 92 million others.
However, in their pioneering book ‘The Future of the Professions’ Daniel and Richard Susskind highlighted that workers are too concerned about how AI will affect jobs, rather than how it will impact tasks and processes. They note that AI technology might displace us from performing particular tasks, or activities, but at the same time it makes performing other tasks more valuable and more important for human beings to do them.
Focusing on the tasks or activities rather than the impact on whole jobs will help identify where the use of AI technologies can enhance human output and maximise human potential. The World Economic Forum’s Insights report on matching talent to the jobs of tomorrow, highlighted the use of AI-driven platforms to offer personalised training paths to help workers adapt to changing job markets, and the use of machine learning to optimise employment search.
By placing the humans at the heart of the transformation, policymakers and businesses are better placed to create tailored solutions that empower workers and build a resilient job market.
The Reckoning
The world of work is transforming in front of our very eyes, quite likely at a much faster rate than we can perceive. Whilst this phase is proving to be existential for humanity’s future it can also be a catalyst for accelerating the transformation that has already been taking place and re-think the processes, practices and cultures that are blocking the ability to maximise the productive potential of people. After all the Future of Work is now!
Resources
Grant, Adam. From best practices to ‘better practices’: Adam Grant on building skill sets fit for the future of work. Centre for the New Economy and Society, 2025.
Handy, Charles B. (2001). The Elephant and the Flea: Looking Backwards to the Future. Random House Business Books.
Office for National Statistics (ONS), released 20 March 2025, ONS website, statistical bulletin, Labour market overview, UK: March 2025
Matching Talent to the Jobs of Tomorrow: A guidebook for Public Employment Services. World Economic Forum Insight Report 2025.
New forms of employment: 2020 Update. Eurofound. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/2020/new-forms-employment-2020-update
Rethinking the World of Work. (2020). International Monetary Fund.
Susskind, Richard, and Daniel Susskind, The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts (Oxford, 2015; online edn, Oxford Academic, 12 Nov. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198713395.001.0001
Tet, Gillian (2021). How Anthropology can Explain Business and Life. Penguin (Cornerstone).
What is the Informal Economy? International Monetary Fund, December 2020. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2020/12/what-is-the-informal-economy-basics
Workmonitor 2025: A new workplace baseline. Randstad.
World Economic Forum. (2025). Future of Jobs Report 2025. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_ of_Jobs_Report_2025.pdf.
World employment and social outlook: Trends 2025 (1st ed.). (2025). ILO. https://doi.org/10.54394/IZLN1673
About the author
I founded Metochi Consulting Ltd to create tailored and impactful people strategies that unleash potential for sustainable growth.
I have a deep belief that the right combination of people strategies and solutions can have a compounding effect in solving those seemingly intractable problems that leaders, owners and founders face during key transitions.
With Metochi Consulting Ltd we are your strategic people partner, connecting the dots to unleash your business’s potential.