courtenaybird:

Offices traditionally use 200 to 300 square feet per worker — an average of everything from clerks’ cubicles to executive suites. By encouraging staff to work from home, getting rid of offices, even resorting to “hoteling” — workers check in when they’re in the office and get assigned a desk for the day — some companies are slashing average square footage per worker to less than 100, about the size of a one-car garage.

Working from home is on the rise nationally. In 2005, 3.6% of the 133.1 million workers ages 16 and older telecommuted, according to Census data. Five years later, 4.3% of 137 million workers did their jobs from home.

(via USAToday)

Futuramb: What is interesting to note here is that digital communication and processing technology is actually changing the concept of both work and the office - but not in the direct, simplified way we expected when we talked about telecommuting in 80:s and 90:s. What are the five main lessons to learn to be able to understand technological change?

1. Structural change always take longer than we think - at least 25-30 years
2. Our view of how the change will occur is usually too simplified and relies on a number of concepts that is consistent with a certain mental model - the new, big bug but late effects (think S-curve) then appears to come without warning from behind a corner   
3. It is not the technological change per se we actually talk about when talking about change - it is the social, organizational, economical or political change we are after - and they will not take place until a technology is embedded and successfully spread to an extent that it change the world for a significant number of people - and that is a complex and socially driven diffusion process which is difficult to predict
4. New technology tends to initially strengthen the existing model because it is used as rationalizing tools making old and soon to be outdated methods more efficient - in some cases even makes them more stuck into the structures than before 
5. A new technology cannot revolutionize the world on its own - it needs to find an entrence into the world and for that it needs:

• to be packaged into a product, service or concept that has a technological working environment
• a market/user base that is interested in using the application which is its current incarnation
• a way to manage the value streams between the participant in the value ecosystem

When talking about IT changing the workplace it is also the case that it was an oversimplification to treat IT as one technology. What we understand now IT is a deeply complex issue that partly relies on the spread of sufficiently intelligent devices as well as a well development infrastructure, all this tied together in a working business model that makes it available for the masses.

Source: courtenaybird

13 June 36 emergentfutures Permalink

From legions of independent consultants to cities dotted with coworking facilities, the future of work is virtual, online and global.

Trend 1: Independent consulting to see hockey stick growth curve

Trend 2: Order books, movies, and now….workers online

Trend 3: Coworking moves beyond early adopter stage

Trend 4: Adaptive lifelong learning the norm

Trend 5: Jobs of the future will either retrofit and blend existing jobs, or solve entirely new problems

14 December 9 Permalink

infoneer-pulse:

With an 8.6 percent unemployment rate and 3.4 million job openings, there’s a clear mismatch between the kinds of jobs available and the skills job-seekers actually have. But who is responsible for bridging the gap for college graduates: schools or employers?

It turns out that businesses are divided over whether college should be about practical skills for specific industries or broader ones, like critical thinking and writing. According to a new survey commissioned by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which polled more than 1,000 employers, 45 percent of hiring managers “believe that most students would be better served by an education that specifically prepares them for the workplace.” Meanwhile, 54 percent of hiring managers say that finding applicants “with the necessary skill and knowledge set is difficult.”

Indeed, considering the strong job growth projected in science, technology, engineering, and math fields over the next decade, too few students are majoring in those subjects. To fix this imbalance, some business leaders and politicians believe that liberal arts majors should go the way of the dinosaur. They advocate making higher education a practical, trade school-like experience that would funnel students into specific majors and spit out graduates ready for the workforce.

» via GOOD

This is a valid question, but it might be that the industrial era separation between education and business are becoming increasingly impossible…? 

14 December 240 infoneer-pulse Permalink

A report on how Google see the future of work in 2020.

1 December Permalink

An interesting article with both an analysis and a proposal for action.

The bottom line is that fewer jobs will return, and on balance, these jobs will require smarter workers trained in new skills. This “creative destruction” of jobs will continue into the indefinite future. So what happens to the workers in developed countries, specifically in America? To attempt an answer, we have to review some Econ 101 stuff.

Source: theunion.com%2Farticle%2F20090912%2FOPINION%2F909109982%2F1024%2FNONE

12 September Permalink