Talk:The future of office work: Difference between revisions

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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.<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>
TikTok Girl has had her supporters. Notable among them is {{plainlink|https://kylascanlon.com/|Kyla Scanlon}}, a whip-smart “influencer” with a Bloomberg column, guest essays in the New York Times and the best part of half a million [[Followers|followers]] of her frenetic tiktoks,<ref>[https://x.com/kylascan/status/1704626243402895435 Here’s one].</ref> podcasts, [[Twitter|tweets]], blogs and so on. Being of Generation Z, ''just'', she has the [[lived experience]] to weigh in and recently did so.<ref>https://kyla.substack.com/p/the-tiktok-girl-is-right-modernity</ref>  
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, [[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]].  
Back in the day, she says, agrarian societies worked daylight hours only giving up their circadian rhythms when forced to by the industrial revolution. It took Henry Ford — not your ''classic'' Gen Z pin-up, but hey to realise he would get more out of his workers if he paid them properly and gave them time off. So was born, apparently, the nine-to-five: visionary, but that was a hundred years ago.  


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.
''[[This time it’s different|Things have changed]].'' The nature of how we now ''are'' — networked, digital and [[onworld|online]] — and what we now ''do'' — delivering services like “B2B [[Software-as-a-service|SaaS]]” instead of making goods in factories — means [[this time it’s different|it’s different this time]].  


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.  
Let’s take this history as read and park questions — such as how TikTok Girl would have liked a regular agrarian day out in the fields, or ''who'' still uses the eight-hour day, since it definitely isn’t the financial services industry or its 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, dispense a bit of tough parental love: an eight-hour day in an office downtown with a commute each side of it is, across the epochal sweep of human perseverance, ''no great imposition''. It might be ''dull'', sure, but that is not the question. You can’t cure boredom by working in your jim-jams from the kitchen table.
 
So, have things really changed? Since many businesses now deliver services rather than making things in a factory, jobs ''can'' be delivered remotely.  


{{quote|
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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.}}
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 is Scanlon’s conception of what her generation, in general, can reasonably expect from professional working life any less informed by the world ''she'' inhabits personally? Hers is a trajectory few twenty-somethings can sensibly aspire to. Look, if they could be financial services influencers, they would. Wouldn’t we all? But the market is small.


But fair enough, we should not accept our fate. The questions remains: ''Can'' we change? ''What''? And ''how''?
But, okay, fair enough, we should not accept our fate. The questions remains: ''Can'' we change? ''What''? And ''how''?


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