Talk:The future of office work: Difference between revisions

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By the end, we sing songs of experience. The boomers have almost gone now. Generation X — short years ago a bunch of scrappy, stroppy, hungry upstarts — are now worldly-wise, world-weary and valued not for energy but experience. They have little left to prove: what advancement they stood to gain happened, or didn’t, but the ship has sailed. They have little further need for their elbows. (Those with the sharpest elbows are already out of sight). If someone will pay them a decent wage to work from home, then happy days. These are not the cohort trying to force anyone back to the office. Why ''would'' they?
By the end, we sing songs of experience. The boomers have almost gone now. Generation X — short years ago a bunch of scrappy, stroppy, hungry upstarts — are now worldly-wise, world-weary and valued not for energy but experience. They have little left to prove: what advancement they stood to gain happened, or didn’t, but the ship has sailed. They have little further need for their elbows. (Those with the sharpest elbows are already out of sight). If someone will pay them a decent wage to work from home, then happy days. These are not the cohort trying to force anyone back to the office. Why ''would'' they?


Consider again the dynamic at the front end of the labour curve: here what you have to offer is energy, enthusiasm and graft. Nuance comes later. Now the organisation needs to fund people who will offer that graft. Bear in mind, culturally, how we symbolise energy: ''those who are prepared to turn up''.
Remember the dynamic at the ''front end'' of the labour curve, where new generations enter it: the main point of difference between graduates is energy. ''Graft''. Expertise and skill comes later. Now, organisations need to find people with energy. Equally, graduates seeking jobs, and those with jobs seeking advancement, will want to demonstrate it.  
 
And, culturally, how do we symbolise energy and effort? ''We turn up''.
 
So as the seasons turn, and existing graduates grow into subject matter experts, existing subject matter experts move on and yet new generations, with boundless energy, enter the workforce, it is not hard to see the [[system effect]] at work. We of the COVID generation will eventually leave the workforce. Those with the personal circumstances, experience and relationship capital to justify it, will continue to work remotely, as they always did. And the rest will tend back to the office.
 
Until the next pandemic.

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