The S-shaped future of work

Forget about scaling a ladder. Careers are set to be defined by shifts and adaptations. What’s your Plan B? What’s your side hustle?

m going to stick my neck out and argue that the office is either dead or dying. If you’re among those hoping to go back to it sometime soon, I’d say don’t hold your breath. If you’re among those who’ve been called back to it, I’d be willing to bet the place will soon be a relic.

Most work will get done remotely. This, because much has changed over the last 16 months. People have got used to being dispersed and have found ways to continue to bond and work together. Many have found this format far preferable. They can live where they please, order their day more to their liking, reclaim elements of their lives such as exercise and family meals.

As the months have stretched out, there have been fewer and fewer reasons for either employer or employee to aim for a return to the way things were. With those at the helms of organisations finding that most work can be done out of anywhere, investments in real-estate and the paraphernalia that go with the office format don’t make sense any longer. That money could be invested to help expand the footprint of the business instead.

People who have experienced working away from the office now know what an escape from the drudgery of daily commutes and meaningless rituals feels like. It is inevitable that both sets of people will ask, do we really need to congregate in one place?

Most arguments in favour of the office hinge on the fact that homes in Indian metros are overcrowded and infrastructure such as wifi expensive and unpredictable. The latter issue is easy enough to address; most large companies now offer broadband and power supply backup to employees.

As for the former issue, an unusual solution has begun to take shape. Indians are migrating away from large cities, to places where they can live more like they would choose to live. Some have moved to coastlines or mountains; others to large cities near their hometowns, where they can be close to their parents and extended families.

The question likely to occupy employers in the coming months, then, isn’t “Should we return to the workplace”, but “How can we work optimally without it?”

Consider the culture of meetings and presentations. This was one area that seemed to get worse with remote working, as people from our professional lives began to enter our personal spaces, sometimes every day.

Now, my day job involves working with various organisations to scan for best practices in the world of work. One of the most effective ones I have witnessed is Amazon’s “No PowerPoint Rule”. The policy was implemented a few years ago, but the pandemic has highlighted how vital it was. Instead of presentations, the rule requires that people write memos no longer than six pages, about any plan or proposal. This dramatically cuts the time spent on meetings. It also forces the author to clarify their own thinking.

The merits of this practice have been well documented and it is being adopted by entities around the world. But, as with all change, it requires the learning of a new skill.

That brings me to another shift we are witnessing at work. We were fed, since childhood, the idea that the career ladder is something we must aim to climb. With industries merging, collapsing and colliding, we must now adapt to the idea that it’s not about ladders. Most careers will likely follow an S-curve. Which means that each of us must periodically ask ourselves two questions: “How am I currently defining success?” and “What must my next steps be to achieve it?”

I know that I am always scanning the horizon for ways to upskill to stay relevant. As a pragmatic journalist who covers business put it the other day: “I’m among the privileged ones to have received a paycheque for all of the last 15 months.” But that could change, for any of us, overnight. And what would we do then? That’s a question one must now always have an answer to.