The Future of Work Is Here.
For years, I have been writing about workplace legal issues, offering a self-termed “balanced view” that neither condemns employers nor blames employees. There is a legitimate place in the world for discussions of that sort, especially when it comes to bringing workplace disputes to a peaceful resolution.
My current perspective, however, is that the more meaningful dialogue to be engaged in the realm of work is not how to navigate workplace issues without invoking legal claims but rather how to unravel the workplace dynamics that produced these issues in the first place.
How did we get from the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to a present day in which U.S. employees feel so disempowered that they must resort to legal action in order to be heard? And how are we going to get out of this mess while keeping civil rights and the economy intact?
A study published by Intuit in October 2010 predicted that the workforce in 2020 will be 40% comprised of contractors, freelancers, and contingent workers. This prediction appears to be coming true. In October 2016, The Freelancers Union released the results of “Freelancing in America: 2016,” which showed that 35% of U.S. workers are now freelancers.
What this tells us is that we see a discernible trend away from the traditional paternalistic concept of work as providing long-term stability, economic security, and benefits. Instead, we are moving into the so-called “gig economy,” with people increasingly offering their services for discrete projects or purposes in an open marketplace.
(I pause here to acknowledge that the rise in this type of work will come with an increase in social welfare issues associated with people who have not been equipped to compete in such a marketplace. The unfortunate role that our society will have played in creating this underclass of workers is a topic for another day.)
Gig economy brokers such as Upwork and Fiverr have capitalized upon the advent of the gig economy by offering platforms that connect people and gigs. Such services have generally made good on their promise of competitively priced project work and they have certainly offered a venue for freelance workers to market their services.
However, pricing power remains in the hands of service consumers and their brokers, arousing healthy skepticism regarding whether it is realistic for people to earn a livable wage working within such a system. Specialized gig economy brokers such as on-demand transportation service Uber have, in fact, been criticized for ostensibly recreating many of the troublesome work conditions from which its drivers had initially fled.
Still, it is undeniable that a new paradigm has emerged in which making a commitment to work for a single organization full-time is less attractive than ever. We are traversing a liminal state during which entrepreneurial systems for matching workers with projects will continue to proliferate.
We have an opportunity during this time to fundamentally rethink the meaning and purpose of work, to deliberately create a future in which profit and widespread personal freedom comfortably coexist.
In such a future, becoming a full-time employee will be a decision to be carefully considered as it might exclude other opportunities and limit intellectual independence. At the same time, before making the investment in a full-time employee, organizations will give serious consideration to whether the continuity, confidentiality, and presumptive loyalty offered by the full-time employment relationship is important enough to justify the cost of exclusivity.
In lieu of typical workplaces, ad-hoc work teams will be formed to carry out specific projects. People who excel in their craft will earn a reputation for good workmanship and they will have the luxury of being selective regarding what they do and for whom.
In such a system of labor — where teamwork, dependability, and quality are rewarded by the community and people are autonomous — the looming specter of the oppressive employer disappears and, along with it, the latent threat of the embittered employee who is ready to sue at the slightest provocation.
In saying this, I am neither demonizing employers nor suggesting that bona fide cases of workplace discrimination do not exist. They do exist — in numbers that ought to shock the conscience of anyone who believes in democracy, together with equal opportunity for the most hardworking and talented among us.
What I am suggesting is that the antidote to the escalation of workplace disputes with which U.S. employers contend requires a fundamental rethinking of the nature of work and the initial bargain that forms the employment relationship — i.e. employment at-will.
As the gig economy becomes more normative and more efficient systems for connecting talent with projects emerge, the tolerance of organizations for mediocre work for fear of legal claims and the tolerance of employees for dehumanizing work conditions will both diminish. It is possible to envision a work utopia in which purveyors of fine products and services are well paid and the enterprises buying and repurposing these products and services, in turn, grow in quality and capacity.
It is also possible to envision a dystopian future in which workers are conscripted into specialization stables, become further alienated from their work, and exist only to provide increasingly cheap labor to industry without the associated burdens of employee benefits and legal liability.
The future of work is here. The question is whether we will either allow inertia to perpetuate and amplify what we most dislike about how work gets done or, instead, seize the opportunity to redefine the employment relationship and usher in an era of creativity, entrepreneurship, and prosperity.
