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OPINION
Creating the future of work
Instead of making predictions about the future of work, take part in actively shaping it.
W hen my fiancé Matthew and I met two years ago, he was a merchant mariner and I was an architect. We defined who we were by what we did. Two years of exploration, change, self-awareness, and growth led to the startling but obvious realization that we are, at our core, what we do – but also so much more than that.
Melanie Harris, AIA, LSSYB
Many of us had this eye-opening experience during the pandemic. The separation from our work “space;” the increased amount of time we spent with our families, and in many cases, by ourselves; and the potential for flexibility in our lives, had us questioning with increasingly louder voices the norms of work and life. Within all of these upheavals, good and bad, I kept coming back to one question – what is the future of work? And how do we help frame and transform it? This article is a result of these questions. I started by reframing the concept of “work.” Work has traditionally been something you do away from home to make a living. But in our human way, we have kept “making a living” apart from “living.” This was never a sustainable approach. We promoted a culture of 8-5
or a culture where you worked those overtime hours, stealing time away from your families and loved ones in return for accolades at work. The extremism of this philosophy led to many things, including nonchalance on one end and burnout on the other. For a better work future, we have to re-purpose what it means to “go to work.” 1. The future is hybrid. While not everyone will subscribe to this idea, and it might not even be the best course of action for some, by and large, the world is accepting the hybrid work format. A winning formula for almost everyone will include the ability to collaborate and have meaningful, spontaneous conversations that lead to ideas
See MELANIE HARRIS, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER JANUARY 2, 2023, ISSUE 1470
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