What Is Breaking Down Our Working Life?
Academy Professor Anne Kovalainen lists three of the most visible things that are changing working life.
According to Academy Professor Anne Kovalainen, it seems that the individual doing work is the focal point of the change in working life. Negative issues are associated with the change: it is experienced as haste, uncertainty, or a demand to constantly surpass yourself.
Kovalainen thinks that it would be worth changing the perspective. Despite living in egocentric times, we should remember that solving the challenges of the changing working life is also the organisations' responsibility.
‒ When the focus is on an individual, employees may easily feel that they should always be better and more efficient. It is the duty of the employers to be able to recognise diversity and create different career paths. Jobs and positions cannot remain the same when employees think about work in a different way from the previous generations, says Kovalainen.
Anne Kovalainen, what is breaking down our working life?1. EgocentricityWork intrudes in a person's life in many ways. Taken to extremes, your whole life can turn into branding yourself.
‒ Highly educated people in particular think that the self is a product to be sold. There is less work done together for a common goal. This is not the best operating model from the point of view of the work community or for doing the work. When people are building their own careers, it's more difficult to set common goals, Kovalainen says.
2. TemporarinessStructuring work as projects creates a feeling of temporariness. Project work demands more from both the employee and the employer: for example, it may be difficult to plan family leaves.
Kovalainen notes that a hectic pace can easily start to control how people operate. In fact, sometimes the haste is only a feeling of being in a hurry.
‒ A good example is how difficult it is to stop reading your e-mail, because if you don't react within one day, people start asking where you are and why you’re not responding, notes Kovalainen.
3. CommitmentCommitment to work has changed. Instead of the company or organisation, the employee may be primarily committed to the work community or an interesting project, which is often implemented in a multidisciplinary network with third parties.
‒ In a network economy, it matters who is paying your wages, reminds Kovalainen.
Academy Professor Anne Kovalainen’s research interests lie in equality and the economy from a gender perspective within the context of global economy. |
Kovalainen leads the Turku Centre for Labour Studies, a multi-disciplinary forum within the University of Turku for research, education and development as well as cooperation with working life in the field of labour studies.
Text: Taru Suhonen
Photo: Esko Keski-Oja
The text is Creative Commons licensed and it is free to use. Please attribute the work to the University of Turku.