Learning from EFF: Re-imagining the Future of Work
The pandemic has profoundly disrupted the world of work.
Lockdown restrictions sent millions of office workers home to work remotely, while millions of key workers went out to keep vital services going and the government intervened in an unprecedented way to maintain 11.5 million jobs through the furlough scheme. For many individuals, this disruption has caused them to rethink their careers. The National Lottery Community Fund supported a number of projects within the Emerging Futures Fund to think more broadly about how the world of work could be transformed.
The uneven impact of the pandemic among flexibility haves and have-nots has been the focus for Timewise. While well-paid professionals often found that lockdown made employers more open to flexible working, many low-paid people had no choice but to continue to work in person and faced even greater struggles to balance caring commitments. Timewise has explored how flexibility is something that can, and should, be available to everyone.
The Job Design Lab brought people together in pairs to talk about their ideas for the future of work. The team found people grouped around their approaches to work: those who see work as a vocation and central to their personal growth; those who sought recognition and purpose from work; those who were only motivated by financial reward; and those who sought a balance between paid work and outside interests. The framing of these individual narratives about the role of work in people’s lives is at odds with the macro issues such as automation which dominate wider policy discussion of the future of work. When asking people to imagine a future of work, it’s important to start with what they value, rather than broader trends which are hard for many individuals to relate to.
While flexibility should be considered as a universal right, it should be understood and explored in the context of people needing security and predictability. Too often, “flexibility” comes at a cost for people in low paid jobs where it translates into irregular hours at unpredictable times e.g., zero hours contracts. In such cases employers are the ones who reap the benefits of a so called “flexible” approach.
Technology and climate emergency are contributing to a rapidly changing job market landscape. However, people’s aspirations for what they want from their jobs remained unchanged overtime and continue to be value oriented. People are still seeking a sense of pride, purpose and connection.
The Institute for the Future of Work also aimed to delve beyond policy generalisations, working in Grimsby to foreground communities’ experience. People in Grimsby were keen for work to embody the things that they value and were less interested in what others define as ‘aspiration’. “I want my job to have an impact. I’ve had lots of rubbish jobs – stacking shelves, working in shops – but now I do something that I feel has a purpose, and I have an impact, not wasting my time.”
However, there is a curious disconnect between conversations about the future of the labour market and what people want from their jobs in their communities. This is particularly true for poorer communities who don’t see themselves as having a role to play in government-led initiatives such as green investment and social and physical infrastructure development.
But IFOW found that futures of work in Grimsby. such as the creation of a freeport and the growth of a green energy industry, are projected onto the town. Residents don’t feel able either to shape these programmes or to access the scarce and specialised jobs they entail. The £67m government Towns Fund investment in Grimsby which promises 8,800 jobs was described as ‘remote’. Instead, people’s priority is work that works for communities.
“We’re all in the same boat. We want to make this area better, and the community stronger. We recognise that jobs are going to contribute towards that, so how can we pull together to make that happen?”
Resourcing and building the capacity of communities to do collective imagining and visioning can empower communities to take an active role and see themselves as a major and integral player in shaping such regeneration initiatives.
IFOW has proposed to create work hubs with the council that will create a space for the community to continue to shape the conversation over the future of work locally and feed into the Levelling Up conversation more broadly. All the projects focused on work found there were significant barriers to getting working people’s views to drive the future of work. Timewise finds that employers need help to understand how to listen and respond to workers’ needs - although a few vanguard employers do this, others need much more support. The Job Design Lab plans to work with employers on how to start with what working people value - the need for work with purpose and the ability to combine work and care.
It’s striking that despite the upheaval so many people have faced in their working lives since the pandemic, the wider narratives around work remain stubbornly unchanged. The Emerging Futures Fund projects have demonstrated that when given the opportunity, people can voice clear priorities that they want a future where work fulfils a sense of purpose, allows them to care for their loved ones and supports their communities. But outside of the fund, the spaces for people to articulate their dreams for their own working lives do not exist, nor are there channels to communicate people’s needs to the policymakers, employers and technologists who determine much of the future of work landscape. We hope that the work of the EFF can start to change that.