Is the Way We Work Natural?
It’s a strange thing to question something that dominates so much of our lives. Many workaholics would object to this premise right off the bat. Let’s use another example first by comparison: going to the gym. That is not normal. There was never a point in our evolutionary past where we’d carve out time to build our muscles or lose weight. Our fitness would come from the tasks we did each day. It was, in some sense, a by-product.
Work is much the same way. The structures in which we work are artificial. Yes, society would not function without it. We can view it as a necessity, like hunting and gathering was. How many jobs are essential, though? It’s an uncomfortable question at first. But if it’s the case that many jobs aren’t, that’s a lot of unhappy people who’d rather be… well, free!
Figures from the ONS suggest that over a fifth of UK adults are not looking for work. This means 9.2 million people aged 16–64 in the UK are not in work nor looking for a job. That seems startling, but it shouldn’t be. At this point, the 9-to-5 grind is a cliche. It is not seen as a positive thing, definitely not something to aspire to. So is it surprising that people are turning away from work?
Some people love to work. It’s the linchpin of their sense of purpose in life. But if you asked most people whether this was true for them, they’d say no. The painful reality is that most people work because they have to. They need the money. If they were able to pursue their passions, their lives would look very different. Their wellbeing would skyrocket, not to mention the litany of intangible improvements they’d also experience.
AI is often billed as a threat — something that will replace or displace us. For many, displacement will be tantamount to freedom. Through this lens, the looming prospect of AI’s disruption of work might be a liberating force.
A Better Balance
Since 2019, Zurich UK has offered all roles on a part-time or flexible basis (including job sharing). This led to a fivefold increase in the number of female part-time hires, which jumped from 23 to 119 per year. The company also used gender-neutral language in adverts.
There are many people for whom full-time work is unappealing, but part-time work is perfect. A decreased need for full-time workers might empower new parts of the population. This is not just about the skills of the future. It’s a counterintuitive sign of the new relationship humans will have with work going forward. Work will be a part of people’s lives, a meaningful one, but will no longer dominate it in the same way.