The Way We Work Is Changing

It’s Friday morning. It’s hectic. Racing thru the house, one of our cats kicks over my coffee cup. Java flows everywhere. Startled by the ruckus, our 16 1/2-year-old blue heeler needs to go empty his bladder. I open the door to let him christen the morning dew coating the green lawn. He baptizes the concrete patio instead. Welcome to our circus. 

I spend my morning darting and diving in out of simultaneous conversations. I am digesting an email my GAC (Global Assignment Coordinator) sent me about an ongoing destination services program. Over on Google Hangouts, my project team and I are having an early morning recap of our late-night brain jam. My wife sends me a text following up on the in-person conversation we had shortly before she left concerning our family calendar for the upcoming weekend. On speaker phone, I catch up on a few things with the Volunteer Coordinator for UGMD (Union Gospel Mission Dallas) while I work on a document stored on Google Docs. The lawn guy rings the doorbell to collect his payment after cutting our lawn. I write him a check (old school technology once popular for exchanging money) and rejoin the circus.

The modern 21st century workforce is global, multicultural, multigenerational, and virtually connected by technology. People can work anywhere, anytime. Unless your job is anchored to a specific location –like a barista pouring java juice at Starbucks or a maintenance engineer responsible for cleaning the neighborhood elementary school—how you work, when you work, and where you work is up to you; and your boss of course. You do realize that you and your employer understand “work anywhere, anytime” differently, right?

As an independent contractor, I have great flexibility that I enjoy tremendously. It fits the current season of life my wife and I find ourselves in. This flexibility helps me juggle the work/life balance, family, ministry, Grad school, and earning a living more effectively. And for a season this will be okay. I am not certain how it plays out in the long run, but for now, I am okay living one day at a time. Not to mention, it makes juggling the circus easier.

The world population consists of over 7.5 billion people.

Nearly 200,000 babies will be born today. More than 80,000 people will die. As we speak, 3 billion people are gainfully employed and go to work every day. Three Billion. Mind-boggling numbers when you think about it.

Several articles and research studies I have read lately indicate that remote work and global teams working together virtually is on the rise and that over half the world’s workforce will be working this way by 2020. At first, this number may startle you. After all, half of 3 billion is 1.5 billion. You may not realize it, but by utilizing email and texts to communicate at work, you are already performing at least some of your work virtually. If you check your work email at home and on the weekend, then you are already doing some of your work tasks remotely. Unless you are in a profession that is location centric, then how, when, and where you work are negotiable. This is true if you work as a freelancer (like me) or if you are employed by a traditional organization (like my wife).

Work is changing. The revolution is already underway. It’s not a matter of if, but when, how, and where.  How do you plan to keep up with the rapidly changing face of work?

Live long and prosper…

RB

References:

Future Trends. (2017). What’s Next Future Global Trends Affecting Your Organization: Use of Workforce Analytics for Competitive Advantage. Future Trends. Com.  Retrieved from http://futurehrtrends.eiu.com/

International Labour Organization. (2017). World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends for women 2017. ILO.com http://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/lang–en/index.htm