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=== Kyla Scanlon’s argument ===
=== Kyla Scanlon’s argument ===
[https://kylascanlon.com/ Kyla Scanlon] is a whip-smart “content creator” whose short-form videos, podcasts and blogs “analysing the economy with a human-focused lens” have earned her hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Recently she came to TikTok Girl’s defence.  TikTok Girl, she says, is ''right''.<ref>https://kyla.substack.com/p/the-tiktok-girl-is-right-modernity</ref>
[https://kylascanlon.com/ Kyla Scanlon] is a whip-smart “content creator” whose short-form videos, podcasts and blogs “analysing the economy with a human-focused lens” have earned her hundreds of thousands of subscribers.<ref>Her videos are either next-level, uber-hip, tenth-Dan free-form improvisational genius, or something that just looks like it. [https://x.com/kylascan/status/1704626243402895435? Judge for yourself].</ref> Recently she came to the defence of TikTok Girl who, she says, is ''right''.<ref>https://kyla.substack.com/p/the-tiktok-girl-is-right-modernity</ref>
   
   
Scanlon starts with some potted anthropology — agrarian societies worked during daylight hours and gave up their circadian rhythms only when forced to by the industrial revolution — and it took Henry Ford (not ''usually'' a Gen Z pin-up, but still) to recognise he would get more out of his workers by paying more and asking less.  
Scanlon starts her case with some potted anthropology — agrarian societies worked during daylight hours and gave up their circadian rhythms only when forced to by the industrial revolution, and it took Henry Ford (not ''usually'' a Gen Z pin-up, but still) to recognise he would get more out of his workers by paying more and asking less.  


So, Scanlon tells us, was born the nine-to-five. The industrial world has, arbitrarily, stuck with it ever since. But the nature of how we now ''are'' — networked, digital, online — and what we now ''do'' — we’ve pivoted from production of goods to delivery of services — means [[this time it’s different|it’s different this time]].  
So, Scanlon tells us, was born the nine-to-five. The industrial world has, arbitrarily, stuck with it ever since. But the nature of how we now ''are'' — networked, digital, [[onworld|online]] rather than “in-person” — and what we now ''do'' — delivering services like “B2B SaaS” instead of traditional industries — means [[this time it’s different|it’s different this time]].  


Let’s take this history as read and park questions — such as how TikTok Girl would have liked the average day out in the agrarian fields, or ''who'' stuck with the eight-hour work day, since it definitely wasn’t the financial services industry or their professional advisors<ref>The EU got so worked up about the long hours that it legislated the “Working Time Directive” in 1998, limiting weekly work hours to ''forty-eight''. Professionals have habitually opted out of it ever since.</ref> — but as we do, a bit of tough love: an eight-hour day downtown with a commute each side of it is ''no great imposition''. It might be ''dull'', sure, but that is not the question. You can’t cure boredom by working from home.
Let’s take this history as read and park questions — such as how TikTok Girl would have liked the average day out in the agrarian fields, or ''who'' stuck with the eight-hour work day, since it definitely wasn’t the financial services industry or their professional advisors<ref>The EU got so worked up about the long hours that it legislated the “Working Time Directive” in 1998, limiting weekly work hours to ''forty-eight''. Professionals have habitually opted out of it ever since.</ref> — but as we do, a bit of tough love: an eight-hour day downtown with a commute each side of it is ''no great imposition''. It might be ''dull'', sure, but that is not the question. You can’t cure boredom by working from home.


So are there other reasons to think things have changed? Scanlon argues that, since we now deliver services rather than making things in a factory, jobs ''can'' be delivered remotely.  
So are there other reasons to think things have changed? Scanlon argues that, since we now deliver services rather than making things in a factory, jobs ''can'' be delivered remotely.  
{{quote|
every time you talk about a change in the workforce, it’s a typical response of “I can’t envision a world different than the one I inhabit personally, therefore, nothing is possible” or some variation of that.... The pea-brained nature of those that can’t envision a future different than the present are the problem.}}
But Scanlon’s conception of what her generation, in general, can reasonably expect from working life seems just as informed by the world ''she'' inhabits personally, which to put not too fine a point on it, ''rocks''. Few twenty-five year olds can expect a podcast, a Bloomberg column, guest essays in the New York Times and the best part of half a million followers across five platforms. If they could, they would. So, frankly, would the rest of us.
But fair enough, we should not accept our fate. The questions remains: ''Can'' we change? ''What''? And ''how''?


{{quote|
{{quote|
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:—''Anon''.}}
:—''Anon''.}}


In a sense it is true: if it comes to it, we can, ''en masse'', deliver services remotely. [[COVID-19|Covid]] has proved it. But this is like saying we ''can'' eat peas with a knife. Is the ''best'' way of delivering services to have staff sequester themselves in their box rooms and interact solely through the medium of Slack, Zoom and Teams?
In a sense Kyla Scanlon is right: if it comes to it, we can, ''en masse'', deliver services remotely. [[COVID-19|Covid]] proved it. But this is a bit like saying we ''can'' eat peas with a knife. The nature of corporate work is inherently collaborative, in the way social media influencing probably isn’t. Is the ''best'' way of delivering services to have staff sequester themselves in their box rooms and interact solely through the medium of Slack, Zoom and Teams?  


In that it constrains communication to formal, metered, monitored push channels, this should at least not be taken for granted. See last week’s piece on the org chart.
Seeing as digital communication constrains us to formal, metered, monitored channels, this should at least not be taken for granted. See last week’s piece on the [[org chart]].


Is there something different, then, about Generation Z? ''Yes'':  
Is there something different, then, about Generation Z? ''Yes'':  
{{quote|
{{quote|
Unlike previous generations, they face unprecedented challenges: climate change, an uncertain economy, ballooning student loans, and the struggles of identity and purpose in a digitised world.}}
The younger generation, notably Gen Z, grapples with an evolving definition of work. Unlike previous generations, they face unprecedented challenges: climate change, an uncertain economy, ballooning student loans, and the struggles of identity and purpose in a digitized world.}}
This is something that could only come from the Generation Z.  
 
Scanlon says we mustn’t laugh at the kids, but when they things like this is it hard not to.


Why don’t we change, then? Scanlon attributes this to intransigence, and a little bit, to embittered generations who themselves went through the meatgrinder, and don’t see why the next generation shouldn’t too.
Why don’t we change, then? Scanlon attributes this to intransigence, and a little bit, to embittered generations who themselves went through the meatgrinder, and don’t see why the next generation shouldn’t too.
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Her video shorts are never earnest: she saturates them with state-of-the-art memery and ''velocity'': everything gallops between with frenetic jump cuts, Burroughs like cut-ups and frame shifts that speak to the easily-distracted multi-channel, hyperlinked, always-on dot-dot-dash attention spans of the digital native but don’t necessarily make sense. Well, not to me, at any rate: they are often far too quick for this old codger to make out, let alone follow, and they’re gone before you get a chance to mull over or analyse for content.  
Her video shorts are never earnest: she saturates them with state-of-the-art memery and ''velocity'': everything gallops between with frenetic jump cuts, Burroughs like cut-ups and frame shifts that speak to the easily-distracted multi-channel, hyperlinked, always-on dot-dot-dash attention spans of the digital native but don’t necessarily make sense. Well, not to me, at any rate: they are often far too quick for this old codger to make out, let alone follow, and they’re gone before you get a chance to mull over or analyse for content.  


You come away impressed but never quite sure if you’ve watched some next-level, uber-hip, tenth-Dan free-form improvisational genius, or something that just looks like it. Have a look at [https://x.com/kylascan/status/1704626243402895435? her most recent one] — “Federal Reserve Recap with Jerome Powell” — and judge for yourself.
 
In any case you can’t help but admire, and maybe be sucked in by, the energy and brio of the delivery. You wonder what it would be like if you got to slow it down and treat it like an old-fashioned, boomer thought piece.
In any case you can’t help but admire, and maybe be sucked in by, the energy and brio of the delivery. You wonder what it would be like if you got to slow it down and treat it like an old-fashioned, boomer thought piece.


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