Richard Donkin - The Future of Work

Richard Donkin

Richard Donkin 2010

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First published 2010 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

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ISBN 978-0-230-57638-4

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For Gillian

Putting together a book like this was always going to be a big undertaking, not least because events that change our future are happening all the time. It meant that, while much of the thinking in these pages was drawn from working and writing for 14 years on the changing workplace, findings and statistics were being added right up to the day I submitted the manuscript (and sometimes beyond). Fourteen years is a long time to be working in this space, and over that time I have consulted and quoted from the research of thousands of people working in the field of employment and management. Some of them, like the late Peter Drucker, who I interviewed at his home in 1996, or Warren Bennis, who became a personal friend and mentor, need no introduction. Neither do the countless management writers, some mentioned in the text, whose work has fed the thinking outlined here. I cant mention all of them by name but must acknowledge their influence. A few others, however, have given regular advice and help and encouragement over the months and years and I would like to mention them now. Stephen Overell at the Work Foundation has been consulted at various stages and some of the research I carried out for the foundations Good Work Commission is recalled here. Duncan Brown, director of Human Resources at the Institute of Employment Studies, suggested after I had completed my earlier book that I should write something more in the line of a polemic and I have tried to reflect some of that in these pages. Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, persuaded me to launch the human capital standards group which Tim Melville-Ross kindly chaired during its short lifetime. Stephen Jones at Investors In People was another big help. The librarians at the Financial Times have always been good to me and I thank them once again. At the British Library Sally Halper was a real help, guiding part of my research. Over the years numerous public relations specialists have helped me, passing on references, pointing out new studies and contacts. I would like to thank Caroline Hole-Jones, Colette Hill and Simon Brocklebank-Fowler for their assistance. The book had been on my wish list from the day I finished writing my history of work nearly 10 years ago, but it took some prodding from Stephen Rutt at Palgrave Macmillan to get it moving. Thanks must also go to Eleanor Davey-Corrigan, Suzanne Fowler and Abigail Coften at Palgrave Macmillan. I would like to thank my family, the boys (young men now), John, Rob and George, who have suffered the grumpy old man for too long. I dont know how to start thanking my wife, Gill, who has been supportive in so many waysreading the text, holding the home together and making endless cups of tea.

Others such as Peter Starbuck, Dave Sellick, Sian Harrington, Andrew Mayo, Chris Bones, Robert Taylor, Harriet Arnold, Seb Morton Clark, Bill Butcher, Peter Siderman, John Dubois, John Ingham, Andrew McNeilis, Nick Isles, Lesley Muir, Andy Austin, Richard Wilkie and the late John Mason have all been helpful in one way or another. Some organizations have also supported my work during this period: Cass Business School (thanks to Caleb Hulme-Moir, Amanda Chick and David Simms), The Adecco Institute, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Recruitment and Employment Confederation, Earthwatch Institute, The Royal Society for the Arts, Henley Management College, HR Society, Human Resources Magazine and SuccessFactors. I am indebted to all of them. I must also thank John Fey and his company SFL for supporting my website, RichardDonkin.com, where many of the ideas in this book have taken shape.

The future aint what it used to be

Yogi Berra (1925)

On a bleak November day in 2008 I was sitting alongside some former colleagues in an East Sussex church. We had gathered for the funeral of an old friend. Before the service the vicar had asked us to ensure that our mobile phones were either turned off or silent.

The memorial tributes were overrunning and I noticed a colleague next to me look at his watch. A few seconds later he was scrolling down the glowing screen of his BlackBerry hand-held communicator and a few seconds after that he excused himself and disappeared outside.

I know that work is changing. It is, after all, the subject of this book. But I hadnt realized before that incident quite how much these changes have penetrated every facet of our livesand deaths. Or perhaps I had, in that the incident aroused nothing more than curiosity coupled with a mild sense of irritation. Can nothing be free anymore from the intrusion of working life? Not even our funerals?

The BlackBerry has come to symbolize the work anywhere culture of our times. This pocket-sized device that can tell us our precise location on the planet, that can access information and communicate in a roll and click of a finger, is a triumph of primate evolution, combining the advantages of bipedalism, the opposable thumb and an enlarged brain to create the ultimate in flexible, mobile living.

Living or working? Its a taxing questionliterally, if your expertise is revenue gatheringbut the question is just as tough for the rest of us. The fusion of work, rest and leisure has become an underlying source of tension in our lives. Our gradual liberation from offices and factories is forcing us to reshape our understanding of work. What is work today?

For years during speaking engagements I have felt comfortable in defining work to audiences as something we would rather not be doing. It usually draws some knowing smiles. In spite of those who claim that they love their work, this more negative definition still seems to resonate with many people.