Last But Not Least
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #137 ❤️
Welcome to our official last newsletter of the year.
In this one we will round up work trends from 2022, wondering why the word “Great” had such a huge place in it, and take a look at some first-hand encounters from the rollercoaster which has been this year.
We hear from the remaining crypto-faithful, retirees back in the workforce, and the woman who fought hard for flexible work to be recognised as possible, and take a look at some jobs which may soon disappear off the face of the earth.
Let’s get into it.
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#1 - Work In Review – Key Lessons From 2022
When it comes to work in 2022, we’ve had a pretty eventful year. While in 2020 and 2021 we were mostly getting to grips with hybrid working, this year has brought us a plethora of new trends.
From The Great Resignation (carrying on from 2021) has sprung the work trends using “Great” as a buzzword – the thinkers of LinkedIn really jumped on that one. We’ve got “The Great Reshuffle” – workers who switching positions or industries and “The Great Rethink” – people thinking completely differently about the place of work in their lives. Then came the “Great Disengagement” – a growing disconnect from employees to employers, and various others.
The second buzzword of 2022 was of course “quiet” – “Quiet Quitting”, “Quiet Firing”. The BBC work editors prediction here – prepare for more buzz words as the changing nature of work continues to be a hot topic.
Other key events in the working world this year include the slow inch closer to pay transparency, the continuing process of figuring out hybrid work (yeah, we’re not fully there yet) and a pick-up in firing.
The key thing to keep an eye on in 2023 according to them? The “power pendulum” between employee and employer – with the oncoming reality of a recession power balance, which was firmly in the corner of the employee, may balance out a bit…
#2 - Where Are The Crypto Fanatics Now?
Last year, Crytpo was the next big thing, the foundation of a new way of living, THE future, if you will. This year, all crypto headlines seem to have focused on hacks and fraud, and the beautiful dream of a crypto world seems to have become a nightmare.
Vice spoke to the people who quit their jobs to work in the crypto field during this buzz, including an Uber product designer who’d quit his job to work at an NFT startup – all gushing about artist empowerment, collective ownership and unique creative structures. Do they regret it?
After getting back in touch with them this year, most of them actually still work in or near crypto. While some lost money or swapped projects, few of them seem to have regrets – especially those who were drawn to crypto for the philosophical or technical potential they saw, and still do see, in it.
They still seem pretty convinced, and while noting that a lot of last year’s wider crypto audience were “frat boys” – this year the field has been levelled a bit to include mainly people who truly believe in a different future for the internet let by crypto.
Basically, frat boys who lost money are out, the core geeks obsessed with the possibility of a new world, well they’re still all in baby.
#3 - Baby Boomer Come Back
In a recent newsletter where we laid out some defining features of how we should be recruiting this year and next, attracting those who had retired out of the workforce during the pandemic was up on the list.
Earlier retirement was such a big factor in workplace attrition since the pandemic that a recent report said that 50–64-year-olds leaving the workforce was the biggest contributor to a rise in economic inactivity in the UK, and putting the economy at risk of weaker growth and higher inflation.
As we discussed in that episode, the aforementioned “Great Disengagement” and “Great Rethinking” were part of the causes of early retirement, as people began to question the place of work in their lives due to the shake-up of the pandemic.
However this year has seen some of them lured them back into workforce, either for economic reasons or otherwise. Halfords, for example, put out a specific call for retirees to come back to the workforce, stating a need for their expertise to fill the employment gaps left by Covid attrition.
This Guardian article talks to four retirees who did get back on the playing field this year. Some noted they needed the money due to rising cost of living, while another noted that although she had left work during Covid due to dissatisfaction in her previous job, she had finally found a role that she found fulfilling at 64.
#4 - Flexible Work For All
After seven years of campaigning along with various organisations working towards fairer treatment in the workplace, including Pregnant Then Screwed, The Trade Unions Congress, and many others, Anna Whitehouse, founder of Mother Pukka, celebrated the news on LinkedIn last week that all workers will be given the legal right to request flexible working in their role from day one.
They will not only have the legal right to request flexible working, but the onus will be on the employer to prove that it is impossible. Workers will be given two opportunities per year to request flexible working, and the employer must respond within two months.
While the Instagram friendly photos and the classic tearjerker LinkedIn influencer tone of the post won’t appeal to everyone’s sensibilities – the news itself is a huge step forward for the future of flexible working.
However, looking at the comments on the post the sheer vitriol and misogyny made us want to shield our eyes – with many old-school posters (one in particular who seems to have become completely obsessed with the post) confusing flexible working with the desire to work at home in ones pyjamas smoking a cigar while being fanned with a palm leaf by your long suffering boss.
Take a look at the comments, if you dare. Otherwise, let’s celebrate the ever changing face of what’s possible in the workplace and a fairer future for all members of it.
#5 - Will These Jobs Not Exist Soon?
Buzzfeed asked their readers to write in with jobs they thought would soon be obsolete. Now, obviously their readers aren’t experts, they’re literally the definition of internet randos, but the answers were pretty interesting all the same.
A lot of them focused on AI. For example, transcription work. When AI becomes advanced enough to understand all kinds of accents and transcribe them, no need for actual people to do that. Same for animation work, with the rise of AI art, will animation houses such as Disney and Pixar no longer need a full roster of artists?
Same for customer service and fast food, with fast food outlets being mostly equipped with those little computers where you can order since Covid, how long will they need staff for? Same goes for customer service chat bots.
And while the idea that AI could replace lawyers because they’re just good at remembering laws seems unlikely, along with the onset of self-driving trucks replacing truck drivers, who knows what the far-flung future could look like…
Brave & Heart over and out.
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