Anyone who was busy with other stuff this week (like doing PR or marcomms work, for example) may have missed a new report on the future of work from the Chartered Management Institute. According to the report, which included the views of over 1000 senior executives, by 2018 we can expect virtual teams, multi-employment (job-hopping under another name) and the complete automation of routine tasks to be the norm. We can also expect to say goodbye to the concept of work/life balance and see work/life integration, where many people work from home juggling the demands of career with those of children and ageing relatives. All well and good so far, but then the Institute asks us to consider the altogether more wacky stuff. Among its sixteen ‘surprise scenarios’, which may or may not come true but are still worth preparing for, are the use of chips implanted into the brain to make workers more efficient, the rise of guild-based companies run by and for their employees (like John Lewis?) and young people rejecting ‘meaningless’ jobs (and the money that goes with them). Most worrying of all however is the idea of systems being run by intelligent software or robots in another guise. Which will of course make any fans of the ‘Terminator’ series very nervous about the future indeed.
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