Role Changes in the World of Work

When I started this blog it was out of frustration.  Frustration that I was a smart, well-educated, independent person whose career had come to a crossroads.  Not because I needed to update my skills, not because I didn’t do my assigned tasks well, but instead because I also chose to care about my family and be sure they were also taken care of as needed.  I found the corporate world of work too rigid and quite frankly too discriminatory.

I wanted to change that world…especially for my little girl.  I didn’t want her to have the kind of workplace experiences I had.  And of course I was not alone in my frustration or my desire.  And I’m happy to say that I do believe the work world my daughter will be part of  will look very little like the one I started out in.

One reason is purely demographics.  We well-educated, independent women are making our mark:

And the role of work is changing, too.  According to the great article “The End of a Job as We Know It, ”  careers are no longer a ladder straight up.  Instead workers are filling a role not a job and  that role will change and morph over time sending workers sideways, forwards and backwards throughout their careers.  HR and leadership have not yet entirely caught up with this concept, or how to manage it.  But with the way social networking and internal and external communities in the workplace have expanded such that employees can connect over skills/projects allowing them to work cross-functionally and interact with other leaders within and outside of their companies, organizations will need to adapt and figure it out or employees will move to those that do.

This is all very exciting!  Because it allows for work not being about filling a chair 9-5 but being about the ability to achieve results which also allows for parenting your children during after school hours, and being there for aging parents as needed while still having a career .  How nice.