Who’s calling the shots? In a perfect world, one where classical economic theory applies, there would always be an even balance between the supply of workers and the demand for them. Reality, boosted by increasing disruption, makes this increasingly rare. Thus there is continual fluctuation between whether the talent or the employer has the upper hand. Clearly people with rare and in-demand skills can call the shots assuming would be employers are aware of their existence. This is why having a strong professional brand and good connections into the recruitment industry are important. Let’s assume that you happen to be in the position where you can choose whom you work for. You will likely be looking to maximise the return on your time, ie your remuneration, and possibly acquire some new skills in the process. Show me the money! At the outset of my career, this was the extent to which I evaluated potential employers. My focus was purely on the economic aspects with little to no consideration given to cultural fit and so on. If the workplace was convivial then that was a bonus. I now realise that the best workplaces are those that make us feel human. It didn’t take long to realise that there were other factors of equal if not greater importance than remuneration, given that I would be spending a significant percentage of my lifeforce in the workplace. Machine earning In recent years, my work has involved studying organisations alongside other overlapping disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and human performance. I now realise that the best workplaces are those that make us feel human. A legacy of the industrial model is stressed workers, largely because it treats individuals more like machine components or resources than human beings. The following is a list of themes I would encourage you to explore during the interview process. Even if you are not a high flyer and lack a plan B, at least you know what you are getting into. Autonomy – To what extent will I be in charge of the quality of my work? Sociality – Am I expected to spend my day in my cubicle / office, only engaging with others in matters related to the organisation? Mobility – To what extent is the workplace designed to encourage people to move, or do managers prefer people to eat at the desk? Work life integration – Will I be expected to suppress my personal life during office hours? Will I be expected to take emails at 2am? Creativity – Will I be expected to adhere rigidly to the process manual or are people encouraged to find new ways of doing things? Curiosity – To what extent are people encouraged to explore beyond the remit of their job specification? Purpose – Culturally, is there a common esprit de corps that goes beyond making the owners / shareholders rich? Courage – Will any attempts at constructively challenging the way the organisation works be met with disdain? Productivity – Will I be judged / remunerated by the time I spend working (or at least being seen to work) or by my outputs? Good health! These are key elements of what makes us human. The more of these that hold true, the more human we will feel working with this employer. Keep in mind that the less human we feel, the more anxious we become. That will ultimately affect our health and value creation capability. Keep in mind that the less human we feel, the more anxious we become. Creating human-friendly work environments is a win for all stakeholders. Just ensure that your next employer is enlightened enough to know that.

Which path are you taking? Five ways to engage with disruption is the title of my recent LinkedIn newsletter. The newsletter has a leadership following, so I covered the topic from an organisational perspective. It occurred to me that this applies to any of us who trade our time for money. The conveyor belt Previous generations typically picked a career. Those who did well at school found they had more career options. They could choose,  for example, professions in law, medicine accountancy and architecture. Once they finished the profession-specific educational top up, they were all set to jump on a conveyor belt that ascended both from a remuneration and social status perspective. However, those conveyor belts are breaking down and so previously revered professional paths are going the way of typing pool clerks and lamplighters. Today, mapped out career paths are giving way to a random collection of professional chapters. A career for life is now increasingly a series of gigs, sometimes played out in parallel, ranging from years to hours. My own career via astrophysics, software engineering and advisory resembles the metal ball in a pinball machine. The goal is to stay in play and avoid bypassing the flickers and ending up in the pinball ‘drain’. The flickers exist to keep the pinball in play. Time it correctly and they can fire you back into the heart of the game. Your capability, and to a large extent your reserves, are what keep you in the economic game. Reserves, ie cash, act as a buffer if you have a fallow period between gigs. Your capability makes you economically interesting to the market. So let’s look at our options for navigating an increasingly disrupted marketplace: Ignore it Your current employer may be a blue chip with a paternalistic leaning. So it might be stormy outside, but you need not worry. Keep in mind that roughly fifty percent of the Fortune 500 companies are replaced every few decades. And even if your employer is smart enough to stay in play, they may well achieve that with more tech and less people. Hibernate You may have the reserves to travel the world for a few years with a view to jumping back into the game when some form of new normal is established. Something radical would need to happen to decelerate increasing disruption, think large asteroid fragment. So hibernation isn’t the solution. Devolve Rather than be a pretty good generalist regulatory lawyer, become the world authority on just one regulation. This could work until the regulation is dropped or a piece of software turns your capability into an office software plug-in. Innovate You could find innovative ways to enhance your capabilities – such as using ChatGPT to boost your productivity as a journalist or outsourcing lower-value tasks to skilled professionals in countries like the Philippines or Vietnam, allowing you to focus on higher-value work. However, if the market no longer requires your capability, no matter how innovatively delivered, it’s simply ‘game over.’ Adapt Adaptiveness is an approach that has served both mankind and all existing living systems for billions of years. There is no point staring at the bush when all the berries have gone. It’s time to find another source of food. Adaptiveness requires a real-time understanding of what the market values. Those that can pick up on weak signals and professionally reposition themselves accordingly are more likely to stay in play. Lifelong learning is no longer an option. As Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You ,  pointed out, following your passion is unlikely to end well. Your ability to understand what the market values and align yourself accordingly is the key to professional success. This is partially a matter of capability, but it is also a matter of positioning. Whether we like it or not, we are all in marketing.

Same as it never was There was a time when employment meant a clear, structured career path within a single organisation. Japan and South Korea come to mind. Labour protective France and Germany have traces of this model. And of course there is the public sector. When I began my career, the notion of a single lifelong career remained, but moving between organisations was becoming more accepted. However, frequent job changes were still frowned upon. Being seen as ‘flighty’ could limit opportunities. Today, growing global uncertainty has put the very concept of a "career" under scrutiny. Who today would embrace a career centred on: Lamp lighting Typing Fast food Journalism Accountancy Surgery. The technology scythe is working its way through this list. Today we need to deliver value that is beyond the capability of AI / robotics. My experience I stepped off the career treadmill just three years in. As a software engineer, I initially saw career progression as managing an ever-growing team. Fortunately, my employer had the foresight to temper that ambition. I did eventually take on leadership roles but felt discomfort in reducing people to mere resources on a Gantt chart. My next employer offered a kind of internal freelancer model, whereby I could enjoy a variety of opportunities across a diverse range of sectors. I simply followed the commercial energy so to speak. I did eventually take on leadership roles but felt discomfort in reducing people to mere resources on a Gantt chart. So, I untethered myself from conventional employment. For the past thirty years, I have navigated the shifting tides of the market. I share this because it reflects what many permanently employed individuals are unknowingly heading toward. As workforce needs become harder to predict, employers will increasingly turn to freelancers. You plc So if you have not already, brace yourself for a post-career world where your next decade, year and week will be precarious. This shift is often framed as the gig economy, traditionally linked to low-skilled work. In reality, even CEOs and government ministers operate within a gig-based framework. This challenges the assumption that the gig economy is limited to low-skilled roles. In reality, even CEOs and government ministers operate within a gig-based framework. These gigs can range from years to hours. And perhaps most significantly these professional engagements can run in parallel. It is entirely possible that you will juggle multiple gigs in a single day (as I do). Death of permanent roles? Permanent roles will not vanish entirely. Those that can reskill quickly and effectively will be perceived as a preferred alternative to freelancers. Long-term employees will remain valuable for the culture and cohesion they foster. Next actions So how can you prepare? Be aware that careers are crumbling. Ensure your skills are not leading you to economic obsolescence. Unless you know that the demand for your dying skill will sustain you for your remaining working life. Consider what a portfolio career might look like for you. Podcaster before breakfast, gardener by day, dubstep-dinner jazz deejay par nuit.