Monday 27 May 2024
Happy Bank Holiday Monday and Happy Memorial Day!
So I am in my Happy Place, namely our family place in a tucked away village the middle of Wales, not far from Hay-on-Wye, where yesterday I went to the brilliant ideas festival How The Light Gets In where I caught up with Isabel Berwick. She is one of the leading lights in the discussion about careers and work, and whose new book The Future-Proof Career: Strategies for Surviving At Every Stage is out now.
Those of you new to this Substack may or may not know about The Nowhere Office podcast about the past, present and future of work which I co-host with Stefan Stern, but we’re in our sixth series - do check us out on the usual podcast platforms such as Spotify and Apple.
We have half an hour 1:1 interviews - coming up next week, Joe Ryle of The 4-Day Week Campaign in the UK . We also have a new feature in association with publisher White Fox where we capture the working life of some interesting and successful people across the spectrum of work: We will be beginning with the distinguished geopolitical strategist Tina Fordham of Fordham Global Foresight who has cornered the market in a new way to bring insight and understanding of our turbulent times.
Back to Isabel. At How The Light Gets In yesterday she spoke on a panel debating the meaning of work, which included political philospher Caleb Althorpe, academic and psychologist and psychotherapist Nilufer Ahmed, and someone who joined late but to some degree who dominated (for me) the discussion: the Labour economist Guy Standing.
The discussion was beautifully chaired by Avery Anapol, Commissioning Editor of The Conversation who navigated a very broad sweep of topics ranging from Isabel’s side of the workplace, corporate career structures, the question of wellbeing, burnout and networks, to the bigger philosophical question which Guy Standing introduced, namely Universal Basic Income.
Although not alone in advocating this, and Caleb Althorpe in particular is a keen proponent, Professor Standing is of the view - not unreasonable, but if I may say pretty unworkable - that the obvious iniquities of work can be to some degree eliminated if we a) rebrand work as ‘Labour’ and b) introduce a Universal Basic Income so that there will be a fairer opportunity not only to underwrite all workers and provide a safety net from what Prof Standing calls ‘The Precariat’ but to ‘say no’ to bad jobs.
This is all very David Graeber - the late great anthropologist whose book Bullshit jobs was published a few years ago: Here’s a good NPR interview with him if you’re interested.
I’m not convinced yet by UBI (Universal Basic Income), any more than I am by a universal 4 Day Week. I’m not convinced because I don’t think policies like this distribute evenly, or dare I say meaningfully to the individual lives. For some a safety net is welcome, but for others it can be a noose, a confinement - just when we’re trying to escape this and embrace flexibility.
But I remain open-minded. Do write to tell me what you think: Julia@thenowhereoffice.com is best.
But regarding bullshit? Well Isabel Berwick made everyone laugh in the session when the question of Purpose came up, another catch-all. “Passion” she said. “That’s a bullshit word”.
I shall be speaking about my book Working Assumptions at the London Autumn gathering of How The Light Gets In.
A reminder that for those of you who wish to subscribe to the weekly paid version of this Substack you will get:
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A weekly roundup on one of the six core themes I’m trackingextensively: Data, Insight, Interviews, Facts. Saving you time, money, headspace.
(i) WORKLIFE: Office Life, Workplaces, Flexible Working, Management, HR.
(ii) THE HUMAN AND MACHINE: AI, Tech’s impact on Skills, Jobs, Training.
(iii) COMMUTER TRIANGLE : Cities, Real Estate, Housing and Travel.
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(vi) THE WORLD OF WORK: Shifts in laws and policies around the world.
My Best as ever,
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