Work & employment: The end of a historic couple?
Since the Industrial Revolution, the concepts of “work” and “employment” have seemed inseparable, forming the backbone of societal organization, economic systems, and the individual’s place within this complex whole. Yet, at the dawn of the quaternary economy, characterized by new economic models centered on knowledge, skills, solidarity, and sustainable development, we may be witnessing a redefinition, or even a decoupling, of this legendary duo.
What is work?
Historically, work, with its etymological roots tracing back to an instrument of torture, symbolized effort, hardship, but also sustenance and fulfillment. The use of the term to denote labor stems from the idea of pain and suffering associated with physical or intellectual effort. It was only later that the term evolved to encompass broader notions of productive activity and achievement.
The word “work” comes from the Old English “weorc” or “werc,” which in turn finds its origins in Proto-Germanic “werką,” meaning an accomplishment or something done.
These Germanic roots are connected to Proto-Indo-European “wérǵom” which also gave birth to words in other Indo-European languages, meaning work or effort. For example, the Latin word “urgere” (to push, to press) shares a common origin. Over time, “weorc” evolved into “work” in modern English, retaining its meaning related to effort, activity, or the task accomplished. Thus, while the English word “work” finds its origin in terms related to action and accomplishment, the French word “travail” has an original connotation of pain and hardship, from the Latin “tripalium”, illustrating the diversity of cultural perspectives on the concept of work across languages and history.
Throughout the ages, philosophers and thinkers have examined work not only as an economic necessity or productive activity but as a central element in the quest for meaning, in shaping individual and collective identity, and in structuring societies. For Aristotle, work is not merely a necessity or a means of subsistence; it is a path to moral excellence and the development of human capacities, a means to achieve eudaimonia, or well-being. For Hegel, work is seen as a mediation between man and the world, a process through which the individual constructs themselves and contributes to objective reality.
Karl Marx viewed work as an expression of life rather than a mere survival activity. Differently, existentialist philosophy, with thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre, considers work as an act that shapes the world in one’s image and takes responsibility for one’s being-in-the-world. I appreciate philosophy for offering a rich and complex view of work, considering it not only in economic or productive terms but as an essential element in understanding human existence.
From a more pragmatic standpoint, nowadays, work factually refers to any human activity aimed at producing, creating, transforming, or maintaining something. Work can be paid or unpaid and extends beyond formal frameworks to include personal, domestic, artistic, or voluntary efforts. It denotes effort, creativity, hardship, but also satisfaction and accomplishment. Work is perceived as an expression of identity, a means of self-realization, and a central part of the human experience. It encompasses a diversity of activities and motivations, ranging from economic necessity to the pursuit of meaning.
What is employment?
Employment, emerging in the 19th century as a more formal structuring of work, embodied engagement in a specific, often paid, activity within an organization. While one evoked the nature of human activity in its diversity, the other defined its framework, contract, and economic purpose. It carries the idea of assignment to a specific task, engagement in an activity with a precise objective.
“Employment” comes from the Latin “implicare,” meaning “to entangle,” “involve,” or “engage.”
From a philosophical perspective, employment can be seen as a social contract in the Rousseauian sense, where the individual agrees to submit to an authority (the employer) in exchange for security (salary, guaranteed duration, social protection). This contract is both explicit and implicit, including not only the legal terms of employment but also societal expectations regarding work and contribution to the community.
For Marx, employment under capitalism separates the worker from the product of their labor, their labor process, their colleagues, and their essence as a human being. This alienation results from the exploitative nature of capitalist employment, where work is reduced to a commodity and the individual to a resource. In the existentialist perspective, employment is rather a terrain where the individual can either exercise their freedom or submit to inauthenticity. Employment becomes a space for self-realization or self-denial, depending on whether the individual engages in their work authentically or allows themselves to be defined by external roles and expectations.
Nowadays, employment necessarily refers to a position or function performed by a person within an organization or society, often in exchange for remuneration. It emphasizes the contractual relationship between employer and employee, assigned responsibilities, and the professional framework. Employment evokes structure, stability, and integration into an economic and social system. It is often associated with notions of career, financial security, and social status. In contemporary discourse, employment is imbued with values such as success, autonomy, and contribution to society.
The rise of slashers: Work and employment in plural
Among the notable trends in the world of work, the emergence of slashers perfectly embodies the transition towards more fluid and diversified professional models. Slashers, those professionals juggling multiple jobs or activities (e.g., graphic designer/writer/entrepreneur), symbolize the pursuit of meaning, autonomy, and flexibility in work. They represent a new generation of workers for whom professional identity is plural and dynamic, and for whom work is envisioned as a means of personal expression and self-realization across various domains of activity.
Slashers illustrate a break from the traditional idea of a linear and specialized career.
Recognizing and supporting slashers in the upcoming economy requires deep reflection on legal, fiscal, and social frameworks. Employment policies must evolve to offer security and protection suited to those navigating between multiple professional statuses, thus ensuring access to training, healthcare, and social protection. Likewise, organizations must rethink their work models to incorporate greater flexibility, recognizing the added value that slashers bring through their diversity of experiences and perspectives.
The rise of slashers also challenges traditional notions of professional success, highlighting that a fulfilling career can be rich and varied rather than linear and specialized. This trend towards a more personal and diversified approach to work is likely to intensify, with individuals seeking to build professional paths that reflect their multiple interests, skills, and values, rather than following a predefined route.
The gradual decoupling of work and employment
The growing distinction between “work” and “employment” is symptomatic of the profound changes taking place in our societies. Historically, employment was seen as the institutionalized and economically remunerated form of work, but today we observe a diversification of work forms that extend well beyond traditional employment frameworks. This evolution raises fundamental questions about the value, recognition, and security of different forms of work in the quaternary economy.
Work, in its broadest and most modern conception, encompasses a variety of human activities aimed at creating value, whether economic, social, cultural, or personal.
The digital era and the advent of the knowledge economy have exacerbated the diversification of activities qualified as work, including independent work, freelancing, collaborative online work, skilled volunteering, or individual entrepreneurial initiatives. These forms of work, often marked by great autonomy and increased flexibility, reflect a quest for meaning and personal fulfillment that transcends traditional boundaries of salaried employment.
Meanwhile, employment, understood as a formalized and contractualized work relationship between an employer and an employee, is itself mutating. Technological transformations, automation, and the digitization of production processes are reshaping organizational structures and modalities of salaried work. The emergence of the platform economy illustrates this mutation, proposing new forms of professional engagement that blur the lines between independent work and salaried employment, between autonomy and subordination.
This growing decoupling between work and employment poses the acute question of recognizing and protecting workers. If the quaternary economy values flexibility, autonomy, and self-realization through work, it also raises concerns about the risks of precarization and increased inequalities. Securing career paths, social protection for non-salaried workers, and recognition of non-market contributions are all challenges to reconcile flexibility and security in the new work landscape.
Probable future evolutions
In the wake of the decoupling between work and employment, several trends are emerging on the horizon, sketching the contours of a future of work marked by innovation, flexibility, and a redefinition of the notion of professional security. These evolutions, although continuing the current transformations, promise to further reshape our conceptions of work, employment, and the labor market as a whole.
One of the major evolutions concerns the professional trajectory of individuals, which tends towards increasingly non-linear paths. In this model, individuals accumulate diverse experiences, alternating between salaried employment, entrepreneurship, training, periods of volunteering, or personal projects. This flexibility in professional paths reflects an adaptation to the realities of a changing labor market and the pursuit of meaning and personal fulfillment.
The notion of career, once perceived as a progressive ascent within the same organization or sector, evolves towards a “mosaic career” model.
Concurrently, the collaborative economy and social entrepreneurship are gaining ground, proposing economic models that value solidarity, social and environmental impact. These initiatives, often driven by digital technologies that facilitate collaboration on a large scale, redefine notions of success, performance, and contribution to society. They offer enriching employment perspectives, combining professional realization and commitment to societal causes.
In the face of these changes, the governance of work is called to evolve. Public policies, social norms, and legal frameworks must adapt to provide adequate protection for all workers, regardless of their status. This implies rethinking social protection systems, recognizing and valuing different forms of work, and promoting equity and access to opportunities for all. Such an evolution towards a more inclusive and flexible governance could favor the emergence of new forms of solidarity and cooperation within the labor market.
Conclusion
Through the question of whether we are witnessing the end of the “work & employment” pair, the aim here is to invite reflection on the evolution of our societies. Rather than speaking of an end, it might be more accurate to speak of a transformation, a reinterpretation of these concepts in light of the challenges and opportunities of our time. It is not so much the disappearance of their link that is emerging, but rather the emergence of a reinvented relationship, where employment becomes one of several means to perform fulfilling, meaningful work, aligned with the values of a quaternary economy.
In this perspective, the future of work and employment may well lie in their ability to reinvent themselves, to adapt to human aspirations and the ecological and social imperatives of our era. In doing so, they will continue to form a pair, not historic, but visionary, paving the way for a society where work and employment are in harmony with the profound aspirations of humanity.
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[Article created on March 5, 2024, by Jeremy Lamri with the support of the GPT-4 algorithm from Open AI for structuring, enriching, and illustrating. The writing is primarily my own, as are most of the ideas in this article].
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