“Rather than seeing the turbulence of the post-Covid working world as something to sulk about, we should see it is as an opportunity to innovate and build professional lives that suit us all.” [Review of ‘Working Assumptions’]
Unless you live and work in Sidmouth, that is, which has become ‘a hotspot for entrepreneurship’ largely because of working from home – but also because Sidmouth is buzzing as a great place to work, rest and play.
Julia Hobsbawm has long been a standout voice on work, from the future of the office, to intergenerational dynamics to disruptive technologies. In her Bloomberg column “Working Assumptions”, she ruminates on office complexities. Now, in a book of the same name, she untangles how the Covid-19 pandemic and generative AI will affect our working lives. The pandemic disrupted established norms, from everyday commuting and the five-day week to “job for life” stability expected by older workers. The data on the widening schisms between the “hybrid-haves and hybrid have-nots”, on burnout and workplace stress and our cultural fascination with television about toxic managers amplify Hobsbawm’s claim that “work doesn’t work”. What Working Assumptions teaches us is, rather than seeing the turbulence of the post-Covid working world as something to sulk about, we should see it is as an opportunity to innovate and build professional lives that suit us all.
Research conducted by Vitality, the next-generation health and life insurer, as part of its Britain’s Healthiest Workplace study, has found that individuals who work hybrid, striking a balance between working from home and the office, tend to experience fewer lost days due to reduced productivity as a result of ill health or sick leave.