Careers

If you’re struggling to remember why you’re still doing your job, it may offer some comfort to know that it probably won’t exist in 10 years time. But before you start cheering and planning your earlier than anticipated retirement, you probably need to check that your job is one of those that are destined to go the way of the typewriter, telex machine, VCR player and all the other once essential elements of our lives.

What’s brought this on? Well, according to the authors of a report from consulting firm CBRE and China-based property developer Genesis, up to 50% of occupations today, including process work, customer work and middle management roles, will not exist by 2025 as people look to take up more creative professions.

According to findings from the report – Fast Forward 2030: The Future of Work and the Workplace – advances in technology and artificial intelligence will help to transform businesses and the work people do. But it’s not all about the wonders of technology; it appears that part of the reason is that we are all becoming much more demanding about our inalienable right to pursue our happiness.

Happiness and Purpose Trumps Money

According to the authors of the report which surveyed more than 200 business leaders and young people from Asia, Europe and North America, much of this impending deletion of jobs is driven by the fact that employees now seek happiness, purpose and meaning in their job role, rather than financial success. If you’re finding that hard to believe, cast aside your cynicism and reflect on the findings that the majority of interviewees (85%) said that work and life would become more integrated by 2030.

This revolutionary shift in the way workplaces operate and what employees want from their job is predicted to have a ‘dramatic’ effect on the global labour market in the next 10 years. For, the CBRE says, as the nature of work changes, so too must the workplace in which employees operate. For 77% of survey respondents, the physical workplace environment will become much more important, even though the ability to work virtually increases with the development of technology.

And, in case you are wondering what ‘dramatic’ looks like, this report is supported by findings from Oxford University and Deloitte which suggests that, in the UK alone, 35% per cent of existing jobs – including office and administrative support; sales and services; transportation and construction – are at risk of being replaced by robotics.

The Power of 9

Wherever you turn, the message really does seem to be that we must look very differently at work and how it will play a role in our future. For instance, a study by research and pensions firm LV= arrived at the conclusion that the typical worker entering the UK labour market today will have on average nine jobs and one complete career change across 48 years of their working life. They also predict that only about 1.5% of new workers will have just the one job across their working lives, making the concept of a job for life, much like the VCR, “virtually extinct”.

There has been a sharp shift from past generations, and today’s workers are facing a significantly longer working life compared to their grandparents. The average retirement age for today’s retired is 59 years. But new workers entering the UK workforce can expect to work until aged 66, and 23 per cent will work until they are over 70 or will never retire. Now, if you know you are literally going to work until you die, I suggest that it’s probably not a bad idea to find the kind of work that you can happily undertake as an integral part of your lifestyle.

Reinvention is the new black, if we want to stay relevant to the world of work.

This is change you had better believe in, says Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES). “The workplace is changing at a faster rate than it ever has done. It’s creating some terrific jobs with great opportunities for some people, but not for others. Old career paths are either vanishing or becoming much harder to navigate.”

Reinvesting and Reinventing

So, what does this vision of the future of work really mean for us? The rapid transformation of the workplace and the abolition of jobs for life probably have less impact on younger people who, if generational stereotypes are to be believed, all suffer from career ADD and are no sooner in one role than looking elsewhere for rapid advancement or the opportunity to run their own businesses.

Generation X and Y (and now even generation Z) have a different attitude to work from the Baby Boomer generation that preceded them. Portrayed as technologically savvy, greater risk-takers, more demanding and more agile in their thinking than older workers, Gen X and Y are far less likely to even want the supposed stability of a job for life and are more inclined towards moving between sectors, job roles and even into entrepreneurship, displaying far less concern for traditional career building than their predecessors. With a preference for informal, flexible modes of work, for those entering the world of work today, 9 jobs in a lifetime is a breeze.

We need to change attitudes to our careers or fall by the wayside. Each one of us is the proud bearer of our own portfolio of skills and experience and adapting to this changing world means investing in training and up-skilling and being open to lifelong learning.

Reinvention is the new black, if we want to stay relevant to the world of work. If you don’t believe me, you try finding a Sony Walkman.

Founder & Managing Editor, ReConnect Africa

* This article has been updated from an earlier version