We’ve all heard stories of people who have worked so hard that they’ve died on the job. But what about other side effects that might not be as visible? Studies have found that office workers, especially in demanding conditions, have a number of increased health risks, such as higher risks for obesity, heart disease, cancer, and more from sitting for most of the day, even it they work out regularly.
If there’s one thing humans are good at, it’s building things that do what they are supposed to do. From cars to engines, phones, and computers, we’ve been doing it throughout time—we design things, and those items do what they are intended to do.
The same is true for the organizations we design and build. We’re the ones who have created these systems, yet we get mad or surprised when they do exactly what we designed them to do.
During my weekly podcast The Future of Work Podcast, I ask a few fun questions of my guests to get to know them better. I often ask who they would have dinner with if they could choose anyone alive or dead. The question stumps many of them, but the wide variety of answers show just diverse and interesting these people are.
If I were to ask you, when was the last time you spent time or money on creating an experience for yourself, what would the answer be? Most likely, the answer would be a few weeks ago, a few days ago, or maybe even earlier today. Experiences are genuinely human things, we care about them a lot.
At one time it used to be that when someone thought about work, they mostly thought of it as a job where they can make money and pay the bills. But the definition of work is changing and work is much more than just a paycheck now.
Looking around at the world today it is so easy to get down, be negative, give up hope, and have a bad attitude. But in order to be successful in this new world of work it is crucial to be optimistic. We have to be positive, otherwise we lose our desire to take action and move forward.
Technology is a tool that we control, not something that takes over the world without our consent. The question is, how are we going to use this tool. Will we use it to replace or augment our jobs?
If you are a sports fan and you watch games on TV, whether you like football, soccer, baseball, hockey, etc…you may be amazed by how fast the commentators get their information. They are constantly getting real time stats so they can keep viewers informed throughout the game.
The concept going through mass layoffs in order to make the numbers look better is relatively new. There is one company that has a story that shows us that there are other solutions to try instead of laying off thousands of people. What would you do in their situation?
What is the future of work? It’s a question people are always asking, but one that no one seems to really know the answer to. Maybe that’s because we’ve been thinking about it the wrong way. Instead of focusing on a single future that we can’t control, we should switch to an active mindset and ask what are the potential futures that might happen, and what do we need to do to get to the future we want to see?