The meanings of the future of work: Imagining movements of (counter)action
When you think about work, what words come to your mind? Think about it. We’ll give you 10 seconds. Now, imagine the year is 2050. What happens then? What comes to mind when you add “Future” to work?
It was with these two questions that we started a profound conversation on our last company retreat. The reflections were so meaningful that we believe they are worth sharing. Our hope is that by doing so, we can start new conversations or at least ask new questions.
If we research the words “Future of Work”, we can find endless reports, articles and trends. They surround us with diverse explorations of what the future of work might look like, in which it is easy to get lost at times: from the predictions of who will survive Artificial Intelligence impacts to the efforts of avoiding individual burnout; from the ongoing discussion of coming back to the office to the benefits of working from home and the boom of digital nomads; from the focus on determining “the workforce’s top 10 skills of the future” to the trends for new types of benefits and perks. While these topics are crucial, they only represent a small fraction of what work means to society and individuals.
On the 24th of September of this year, the Greek Parliament approved a new bill introducing a six-day work-week. The housing and mobility crisis in most cities today creates deep barriers to people’s access to basic living conditions. Portugal’s health and educational systems are undergoing a tremendous crisis, affecting not only the lives of teachers and doctors but also of cleaning staff, nurses and assistants. Many migrants are searching for opportunities for a better life, and the inability to access fair working conditions becomes a significant obstacle in their integration process. The climate challenges are casting a shadow over today’s youth but also generating new movements of necessary change and justice. Europe faces a worrying ageing crisis, while Africa has the world’s youngest, fastest-growing population. By 2050, one in four people on the planet will be African.
These are all just examples, shaping reality. But, isn’t all of this also about the future of work?
Let’s return to the questions we did at the start. When you think about work, what words come to your mind? And when you add the word “future” behind it, what happens?
Now, imagine we ask these same questions, but in a different setting. Perhaps we are in a room filled with food service workers, ride-share drivers or cashiers. Or maybe in a room where BIPOC entrepreneurs, neurodivergent consultants or even adolescents are part of this discussion. What words would we hear? What questions would be asked? What would flexibility or well-being mean in this context? What would be demanded of organisations, governments and other societal infrastructures?
Today, the discussion surrounding the Future of Work often takes a narrow and unilateral perspective rather than encompassing the collective nature of the system. It tends to associate work with privileged settings, with a particular socio-economic status and gives primary focus to individuals. By doing so, it reinforces systems of invisibility. These systems are the forces hiding profound layers, crucial for us to see, especially when we want to think about… well… the future.
They hinder various professions and experiences, especially informal and precarious work, underprivileged communities and marginalised groups. They hide the interconnections between work and society. Many jobs and roles depend on accessible public transport, affordable housing and educational opportunities. Many depend on the continuous fight to guarantee basic working rights and on the nurturing of strong community connections. Work is and will continue to be greatly impacted by how populations evolve and are organised.
However, it is not just society that influences how we experience and perceive work. Far from being a mere transactional activity, work also has the transformative power to shape our living experiences. It is an important tool for economic empowerment, social innovation and for the creation of fundamental networks and structures that might be the answer for a planet in crisis.
If we maintain a linear, privileged and individualised perspective when discussing the future of work, we risk perpetuating these divisions and further accentuating the possibilities for an unfavourable future.
Today, most organisations are closed within themselves, trying to find the right formula for the future of work. However, work cannot be looked at within the organisational boundaries. It lives and blossoms outside of those. We must start diversifying the meanings we give to work, who we involve in the conversation and how we envision the future. Organisations should play a proactive role in shaping alternative scenarios, intentionally collaborating across organisational boundaries, and recognising work’s systemic influence on society and communities.
But how do we do this? How do we start changing the narrative?
Antoniette Carroll, the founder of Creative Reaction Lab, reminds us that “Systems of oppression, inequality, and inequity are by design. Therefore, they can be redesigned.” Similarly, systems of invisibility often derive from oppressive forces. To actively address and engage these hidden structures, we need to establish new, opposing forces that work to disrupt oppressive loops and dismantle systems that are outdated and harmful. More than resist, we need to counteract.
We need to redesign the processes, tools and practices that no longer serve us. In order to do so, we must create spaces that allow us to slow down and return to our natural rhythms, providing us with the time we need to realign our purpose and take positive action.
We need to comprehend and address the system as a whole. This requires creating more participatory movements and efforts that bring all stakeholders into discussions and forge new movements of cooperation within communities.
And ultimately, we must go beyond systemic thinking and develop a deep understanding of planetary issues. We need to move from individualised perspectives and frameworks and use work as collective power to regenerate and protect natural systems.
Returning to natural rhythms
As the Industrial Revolution dawned, it brought about a profound shift in how we perceive time — in the past, time flowed more naturally, following the rhythms of agriculture and daylight. However, with the rise of factory work and the need to coordinate large workforces, time became rigid and standardised. People’s lives became increasingly oriented around the clock, schedules, and punctuality.
Today, we find ourselves caught up in the fast track of capitalist speed. It propels us into an unceasing quest — we are perpetually in pursuit of instant gratification, craving immediate results, rushing to predict what the future might look like. It feels like time is moving faster than ever before.
When did we get so disconnected from our natural rhythms? These fastened paces have repeatedly harmed our bodies and our natural systems. This speed has also shaped our view on productivity. The grind culture, the glorification of busyness, and the constant feeling that we cannot afford to pause are all symptomatic of today’s work culture. Why do we demand 100% from ourselves when nothing in nature operates at full throttle 100% of the time? As organisations, we must collectively create new paces other than the economic ones. We need to return, learn again from the speed of natural systems, and use time as a tool for change.
From organising collective napping sessions to facilitating daydreaming events, the Nap Ministry advocates for rest as a form of resistance, breaking the oppressive cycles of capitalism’s obsession with productivity. Tricia Hersey, the founder, tells us that “stepping away and taking time to lie down, nap and sleep allows us to dream up new ways of living and thriving collectively outside of grind culture.” She poses rest as a source of reparations and a pathway to ancestral connection. She shines the light on the most oppressed groups, especially black bodies, seeking to de-stigmatise who, within society, get access to self-care and afford to slow down.
At With Company, we’ve started this journey with The Doing Nothing Workshop. By setting the tone with the lyrics of “Out of Time” by Blur, we created a workshop whose main rule is to allow boredom to come in and take over. We’ve discovered that giving ourselves permission to be still and quiet allows our minds to wander and explore new possibilities. By letting go of the need to constantly do, we uncover new things about ourselves and others. For us, doing nothing is the gateway to doing great(er) things.
Let’s imagine a future where we embrace a slower pace and we allow nature to restore its equilibrium. Slowing down will enable us to thoughtfully craft new ways of perceiving time. We can create a future of work filled with new spaces where diverse rhythms can coexist — the rhythms of nature and humanity.
Cooperating within local communities
In our current era, we often lead individualistic lives, inadvertently underestimating the transformative power of coming together. Cultivating deeper connections within our communities can lead to lives where we move away from the grand scale, recognising the value of embracing a more micro approach to our daily activities.
It becomes evident that the future of work necessitates the creation of models that are deeply rooted in communities, with participation serving as the cornerstone for innovation. Creating greater bonds and systems of engagement within communities opens spaces for new forms of collaboration — a collaboration that is fully participative, where the lines between client and provider are blurred.
Rizoma, a Cooperative in Lisbon, is redefining how the community can access basic consumer goods more fairly and equitably. What started as a community grocery store is expanding into a multi-sector cooperative, organised in working groups, where everyone has a place to contribute and a voice to question. Rizoma exemplifies the potential of cooperation, as it is expanding its influence into multiple sectors, encompassing agriculture, commerce, culture, services, and even housing development.
Another great example is Dark Matter Labs, a “not-for-profit” organisation, that is actively engaged in collaborative efforts within communities to effect substantial transformation and reconstruct various aspects of their institutions, tools, and infrastructures. From redefining policies to delving into the possibilities of reshaping ownership, legal frameworks, and governance structures, they are at the forefront of pioneering a fresh perspective on economic systems.
For us, working within communities has been important from the early beginning. With Cities is a proof of that — an open and co-creative approach, using the power of the collective to find better solutions for the public sphere, which has led to great impact, like the creation of a participatory community of entrepreneurs and innovators in Made of Lisboa and a project within the educational system with Câmara Municipal de Cascais.
Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to expand this work beyond Lisbon. Through a partnership with IOM Portugal (International Organisation for Migration), we had the opportunity to develop a program that brings together employers and the resettled refugee community. We imagined new integration journeys in the labour market, with workshops in three Portuguese cities. More recently, we’ve joined efforts with GSBTB (Give Something Back to Berlin) in designing a meaningful event together with the local migrant community, to ensure a better integration into the tech industry in the German capital. These partnerships have allowed us to create profoundly participatory environments where companies, employers and sometimes marginalised citizens collective change for how work is accessed and experienced.
By creating new community-centred approaches, we hold the potential to reshape the future of work into a vibrant ecosystem where individuals unite in pursuit of shared missions. A future where we can find spaces crafted for cross-disciplinary collaborations, where what is created comes from the community to serve the community. A future where the word purpose itself is undressed of its current heaviness, reconnecting us with our profound human connections.
Regenerating & protecting natural systems
Work is becoming increasingly intertwined with the climate crisis. As new events unfold, we find ourselves at a critical juncture where the environmental movement must evolve to fundamentally influence our vision of the future. The urgency of addressing climate change is not only an environmental imperative but also a profound socio-economic challenge.
Incorporating climate resilience into the way we think about the future of work is imperative. It entails not just adapting to the changing climate but actively mitigating its impacts. We must reimagine industries, businesses, and job roles, fostering a new mindset.
When thinking about the intersection of ecology, society and the future, Atmos came to mind. This digital platform opens the space for the exploration of numerous stories and projects that connect the way we work and organise ourselves with the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems.
While exploring Atmos, we can find the story of the Mediterranean Conservation Society. The Turkish waters of Gökova have been ravished for years, impacted by industrial fishing, pollution, climate change, and invasive species. Today, this natural system is being brought back to life by this conservation society working together with the local fishing industry rather than against them. By using their knowledge and intimate connection with the location, they are turning fishermen into marine rangers — active agents protecting their own natural ecosystem. Gökova has been recently recognised by the United Nations (UN) as one of the world’s best marine protected areas.
Picture a future where organisations no longer exist solely to pursue profit but instead serve as guardians and stewards of our natural world. In this vision, these organisations are not confined to urban landscapes but become integral parts of the earth’s ecosystems. They can reside on the banks of rivers, within the heart of forests, or at the forefront of coastal habitats.
When picturing this future, BUPi comes to mind — a project that enables not just territorial planning, but also values natural resources and can even prevent natural disasters, like wildfires. For us, at With Company, prioritising citizens and bridging governance and operations for lasting territorial and environmental impact, makes us certain that we can have a role in designing a viable planet for future generations.
By reimagining the role of organisations, we have the power to foster completely new forces for natural regeneration. This paradigm shift encourages us to view work as an integral part of the natural world, emphasising the interconnectedness of all living beings and recognising the necessity of preserving and regenerating the earth’s ecosystems for the benefit of current and future generations.
Creating new alternative realities and crafting a desirable future for all will require courage. It will demand that, collectively, we are able to imagine new movements of counter-action that challenge current systems of invisibility, powered by inequality and privilege.
Being brave enough to imagine a future where we take time to slow down and create new rhythms. Where we blur the lines that separate citizens and organisations, creating systems of co-creation and participation. A future where we become guardians of all living beings, nurturing and rebuilding natural systems.
But first of all, we must shift our perspective and redefine what we understand as work. By acknowledging it as a complex system with so many connections and invisible layers, we can see that the boundaries between personal and professional, public and private and individual and collective can blur into a delicate and interconnected balance. The future of work is bigger than individual organisations. It includes the broader organisation of society itself.
Work is a social agent, an economic empowerment tool, and a cultural and community integration force. If we strip away and counteract from the capitalist structures that rush us, divert our focus, and trap us in endless loops, work, in its essence, is the driving force behind communities.
We hope you feel inspired to (counter)act.
This article was written by Ana Oliveira.
About Ana:
Ana is a Strategic Designer & Project Lead at With Company. For the last three years, she has been bringing her passion for intersectionality and systemic change to every project and every team. Her work has ranged from a plurality of issues, from understanding what might lie in the future for the ageing population in Portugal to bringing to light the challenges felt by patients living with rare conditions. She has been involved in facilitating change in the refugee community’s labour integration and creating new pathways for the fishing industry. Strategic and systemic approaches have been central to Ana’s path at With Company. While having lived a year in Cologne, spending a winter in the Highlands, Scotland, and now setting her home (with her two cats) in Lisbon, Ana has gathered rich experiences that make her committed to using design as a tool for transformative change and dismantling systems of oppression.
