New Work, New Culture : Work We Want and a Culture That Strengthens Us (9781789040654) by Bergmann Frithjof

Author:Bergmann, Frithjof
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781789040654
Publisher: Natl Book Network

The turn in the use of computers

There is, however, one other development underway which has a very different trajectory. This one has its origin at the extreme opposite end of the social polarity: not in a response to the great mass of the down and out, but as far from that as possible, among the “most advanced,” and possibly among the most advanced of the most advanced. The background to this mighty development is nothing short of the sea-change in the global “labor force.” This came about, on the one side, through the elimination of many millions of mind-extinguishing jobs through the successive and still continuing waves of automation. The other side was the creation of almost as many millions of jobs that were intellectually far more highly placed. Jobs that some identify with the label “systems analysts,” jobs that account for the far higher ratio of PhDs in many of the smaller new business organizations. Jobs that have changed the appearance of our airports: for on every second bench you see a person oblivious to her or his surroundings, because their entire attention is riveted on their laptop. The net effect of these two changes has been a huge upwards shift. The profile of the sum-total of those working is dramatically new. By some estimates close to one-third of the total require an entirely different culture from the organization by which they are employed, closer to the culture of universities and research laboratories than to the culture of steel-mills and assembly lines. Their demands are not those of the workforce 20 years ago, and most importantly for New Work, what they expect and want from their work is miles from the “mild disease,” and is far more proximate to our conception of WRRW. One much-publicized episode in the recent history of the legendary Silicon Valley gives a particularly vivid impression of this. It also shows in what surprising ways New Work has progressed among those who are at the very top of our current social hierarchy.

In all of the United States, but particularly in California and most especially in the magic circle of those who had managed to get seats on the roller-coaster of the e-business wealth, a jubilant air had lasted for several years. One basked in the extravagance of life, and poured money like wine out of a shoe over one’s head and face. One walked into the future as if it were an orchard: all ready and ripe and begging to be picked. The fantasy of “limitless possibilities,” the idea that everything and anything at all can be achieved if one only tries, lies in the USA always just under the surface of consciousness. And that idea had managed to become king of the hill for 10 years. All this, however, represents only one side. For many it was a carnival that had lasted too long. There had been too many drunken nights in a row. So – and that is a first major point – when it stopped overnight one also heaved a sigh of relief.

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