In May 2020, I spoke with LSE graduates about the Future of Work. Detailed notes below!
“LSEAAL Future of Work Podcast Series
In this podcast Sarah Stein Lubrano from the School of Life talks to us about the increasing importance of autonomy to the workforce of tomorrow, what perspectives managers and companies may need to adopt in this respect and how to consider and harness shifting attitudes to work and working life. We hope you enjoy the podcast.
Podcast Timestamp
1:19 - Sarah’s Intro
2:47 - The School of Life’s use perspectives on the current Covid crisis
4:00 - The value of Stoicism.
**Check out the School of Life’s Video gives a useful background on “The Stoics” :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu7n0XzqtfA
5:10 - Seneca’s life - “What is it to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”
**From Seneca’s Of Consolation: To Marcia. Check out the full collection at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Consolation:_To_Marcia
6:26 - Taking a historical view of suffering and misfortune
11:01 - A people first approach vs profit first approach to collaboration and work.
**The School of Life’s White Paper on Autonomy.
13:34 - People are increasingly not trusting of jobs to give them security.
“70 - 80% of people don’t trust their company to help them adapt when there is technological change.”
14:22 - The shifting value of autonomy.
18:28 - The “mini-surveillance state” employer vs the autonomous worker.
20:30 - The Amazon warehouse employers as a case study. For and Against.
22:20 - The value and impact of Universal Basic Income.
“If I had to make this argument to people who run low autonomy corporations. It may be working for you right now. [...] I wouldn’t bet on it working forever.”
23:52/24:29 - Employee equity model?
26:06 - Incentivising workers by empowering choices and connecting people to their work.
27:00 - “Get out of managerial mindset thinking of people as an extension of a pyramid of hierarchical decision making”
28:00 - Freedom over money is a false choice.
28:19 - Why society and the workforce has ended up where it has?
In the 50s - People still doing manual labour - “Downsides of people being bossed around are less obvious”.
29:40 - Turnover is very expensive and a key challenge for employers.
32:00 - What skills will not be automated? The future-proof emotional skillsets of the future…
34:52 - “If you learn to be very very good at making decisions that aren’t impulsive, or to say no when people make requests of your time that aren’t important, or to manage your own levels of emotion so that you can focus on the work that you have to do, that will be relevant in 20 years almost certainly....”
35:46 - Exercises for children from the School of Life...
Additional resources
https://www.theschooloflife.com/london/the-school-of-life-for-business/”