The Future of Work is a theme which one needs to come back to again and again. In yesterday’s world, the future seemed the same from century to century, unless you were a science fiction (SF) author writing about A Princess of Mars. Today, SF as a category is practically dead; Dejah Thoris and her creator Edgar Rice Burroughs have laid their last eggs.

Look again at John Carter (the earthman who married Thoris). He would surface from Earth once in a while by the simple expedient of staring at Mars. How? Why? Where? There are no answers to ‘How’. Why? Because it makes for a damn good adventure – a Tarzan of the Apes in alien landscapes. Where? Tarzan travelled to the earth’s core once; his fans would not consider Helium -- one of the major kingdoms on Mars – all gas.

Studies on the future of work have to be taken with a dose of nitrous oxide; ask your dentist what it can do to you. For instance, everybody today is full of IT, Big Data, Cloud Computing and the like. But the older generation doesn’t understand any of it; they may have acquired the jargon to deal with the nerds and the geeks. The NGs (new generations, not nerds and geeks) have the competitive edge because they know that pieces of eight (which, in another time and age, meant Spanish dollars, equivalent to eight reals) bits make a byte.

In computer companies, the best and most effective employees will be the computers. A human presence will be needed only to jump to unwarranted conclusions, to think out of the box. Computer science grads will make up the cyber-coolies on the bench; the BAs in zoology or botany will make the key Big Data connections and become CEOs. As it is, the marketing types have taken over from the IT horde.

When is it likely to happen? In India, not for a long time. The trouble is that IT is all the craze today; the best students go there. Zoology attracts only zombies. So IT specialists, like thousands of IITians who join finance, will rise to the top because of their basic intelligence and not for any learnt skills.

How do others see the changing scenario? The old adage was tomorrow is predictable; for the day after, you need Nostradamus. Here’s a version from The Guardian:

Workplace structures: Forget the rigid corporate ladder; now the corporate lattice allows free-flowing ideas and career paths.

Artificial intelligence: The robots are coming and, if the forecasts are correct, they could sound the death knell for millions of jobs.

The human cloud: Websites that match employers with freelancers are growing fast — and so is the potential for lower wages and inequality.

Workplace monitoring: Bosses apparently worry about the health of their staff and are asking them to wear trackers. Nothing sinister about that. (But they are used to keep tabs).

The end of retirement: Forget quitting at 65 – everyone is going to have to stay on for longer, but we should exploit older people’s experience.

Indian company Cognizant talks about the Four Forces Facing the Future:

Mobile Worker — The mobile device powers his every task, activity and accomplishment. 

The New Technology — The cloud, mobility, social tools and predictive analytics are creating transformative new business processes. 

The New Worker — The millennial mindset is reshaping everything from communication to innovation both inside and outside the organisation. 

Businesses Harvest Big-Data Insights with BI — Companies can harness exploding data volumes by using business intelligence to deliver data-driven insights that lead to better decisions.

Finally, a quote from a Time magazine essay: “Work will mean managing a tribe, creating a movement and operating in teams to change the world. Anything less is going to be outsourced to someone a lot cheaper and a lot less privileged than you or me.” There are no jobs in the future for the privileged. Vijay Mallya, watch out.


New horizon

New skills and mindsets are needed for the future

• Education and training is becoming ever more important

• New capabilities are needed for new jobs of the future

• Digital literacy is needed alongside numeracy and literacy

• The changing importance of STEM (whilst participation rates are in decline)

• Aptitudes and mindsets to handle a dynamic labour market

• Challenging perceptions and norms about job types

• Improving workforce participation in vulnerable demographics

• Towards tapered retirement models

• New models to forecast job transition requirements

• Improved understanding of the peer-to-peer (and freelancer) economy

Source: Tomorrow's Digitally Enabled Workforce, CSIRO Australia