The Future of Work II: Standard of Working Up, Quality of Work Life Down

Humans love to keep score. Nowadays there seems to be a scorecard or measurement index for just about everything from the cost of living to the cost of dying and everything in between. The problem with many of these measures is that they take a pure economic view of whatever is being measured. But conclusions about the economy or business can often be misleading when drawn from only those indicators that are easy to quantify.

As Albert Einstein noted, “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.”

Yet many people, particularly economists, remain fixated on the numbers. A widely tracked numerical economic indicator is the standard of living. Economists are fond of pointing out how advances in technology and the globalization of business are driving increases in our standard of living in America. Some economists equate standard of living and quality of life as the same, but they are not.

Standard of living has to do with the degree of prosperity in a nation, as measured by income levels, quality of housing and food, medical care, educational opportunities, transportation, communications, and other measures. Quality of life on the other hand, refers to an individual’s satisfaction with his or her life and general sense of well-being. It is often measured as physical, psychological and social well-being.

Economists argue that increasing the standard of living is a good thing. The cheaper the cost, the more of a product or service we can buy, the higher the standard of living, the better off we are. Right? Not necessarily. Take food for example - today Americans enjoy plentiful and cheap food. We consume more calories for less cost than ever before. Everywhere you look portions sizes are getting larger. “Ventis”…”Supersizes”…”Jumbos” or in the words of Dave Barry “Mega Grandissimaximo Giganto de Humongo-Rama-Lama-Ding-Dongs” are everywhere. Need a six pound jar of pickles? You can get it at Wal-mart, for a mere $2.39! (What ever happened to mini-sized products like six-ounce ‘pony’ bottles of Rolling Rock beer?) Our cost per calorie is at an all time low and odds are good it will continue to drop.

In the eyes of economists this is irrefutable evidence of our increasing standard of living. But what about our quality of life – does consuming these products improve that as well? Nearly 70% of Americans are overweight and at health risk. Almost thirty percent are obese (more than 30 pounds overweight). Obesity is classified as an illness linked to all sorts of health problems. Our standard of living may be up as a result of an overabundance of cheap food but our quality of life seems to be diminished from consuming it.

This situation is not confined to food. Choice inflation is pervasive – in shops, at the movies, on TV, in restaurants. Impact on the standard of living? Unarguably better. How about quality of life? It’s not so clear. There are two cars for every three Americans. More cars mean a better standard of living. But traffic congestion, gridlock, and road infrastructure are all bad and getting worse. Quality of life – better or worse? It certainly didn’t feel better to me the last time I was stuck in traffic gridlock.

The concepts of standard of living and quality and life have parallels in business. I refer to these as “standard of working” and “quality of work life”. The standard of working (degree of productivity) is on a roll. Technology is making workers more productive than ever. Everyone has information at their finger tips. Lean manufacturing practices and automation means we can produce more per person than ever before. But what about our quality of work life – is it rising or falling? Well, it depends on where you sit in the organization. Some might argue that the quality of work life for CEO’s – given their astronomic levels of compensation and perks - has never been higher.

How about the average worker? Pay has been flat or rising at modest levels. Many benefits have been pared and some even eliminated. Workloads continue to increase. More flexibility has been given to workers, but many are working in the evenings at home, on the road and on weekends. Satisfaction, engagement and commitment are down by most measures. Is the quality of our work life getting better or worse?

The disparity between standard of working and quality of work life, just as the imbalance between standard of living and quality of life, needs to be redressed. One cannot continue to increase while the other diminishes. The knowledge economy depends on engaging talent and leveraging their passion. For the growing ranks of these workers, quality of work life is critical, not only to how they feel but to the quality of the work they produce.

If the future of work is to remain bright, we must find ways to increase the standard of working AND the quality of work life.

The Future of Work is Now

I just returned from attending the 2nd Annual Future of Work World Congress (see http://www.thefutureofwork.net/what_congress.html), an energizing two-day forum in which people from business, government and community economic development came together to envision the future workplace and develop action plans to make it real.

The historic Society Hill district and Independence Mall area of Philadelphia where the conference was held includes an attractive mix of the old, the restored and the new. This part of the city is the cradle of liberty – home to the site where the U.S. Constitution was signed and Liberty Bell still resides. It provides a wonderful example of how a community can preserve its heritage and character while allowing for change and growth.

Contrast this with the state of work and the working environment in corporations today. How well have they changed and adapted to the times? On the surface many things seem updated or new. Facilities, furniture and furnishings, computers and support technology often reflect the latest advancements in their respective fields. And of course management practices and policies are always evolving, products and services are constantly changing and organizations seem to be in a perpetual state of restructuring.

But beneath the facade, is the workplace a better and more fulfilling place than it was 10 years ago? The prevailing view of the Congress attendees was that it is not, and much time was spent discussing how to accelerate positive change - remove obstacles to improvement, make work more flexible and environments more human-friendly and harness the power of technology to free workers to be more creative and productive rather than hold them tethered to the electronic equivalent of pick axes.

Today, the majority of workers still go to offices everyday even though information and communications technology increasingly allows them to work from anywhere. They still work in facilities that are designed to minimize operating costs and preserve hierarchy and status not inspire creativity and fuel collaboration among workers.

Their level of satisfaction with their jobs and work environments continues to slide downward. According to the latest Conference Board report, (for headlines from the report see http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressDetail.cfm?press_ID=2582) only half of all Americans say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from nearly 60 percent in 1995. The largest decline in overall job satisfaction occurred among workers 35-44 – dropping almost 12 percentage points. The second largest decline took place among workers aged 45-54, with the satisfaction level dropping just under 10 percentage points. Additional results from the supplemental survey conducted by TNS showed that 40% of workers feel disconnected from their employers; two out of every three workers do not identify with or feel motivated to drive their employer's business goals and objectives; and 25% of employees are just “showing up to collect a paycheck.”

The cube farms of America are not happy places in which to toil. Many are seeking escape. For example, a study of workers across the U.S. recently conducted by Spherion Corporation and Harris Interactive indicated that 7 out of 10 workers are ready to change jobs. But if a large number of them work for companies that do a lousy job of engaging them, what are the odds of finding a better opportunity and a more fulfilling environment? Regrettably, most of these individuals may be jumping from one proverbial frying pan to another or worse. Some workers will find better jobs and more fulfilling places to work, but simple math suggests that many will end up not much better or even worse off than before. The only alternative for these workers is to stay put and face up to the challenge of making the job and work environment they already occupy better.

To ensure that the future of work is a compelling one, the largely negative workplace momentum of the past two decades must somehow be reversed. What can individuals and managers do to make this happen? The challenge at hand is in many ways an individual one - to create the future one person at a time. The next generation workplace will be built from the ground up far more than by top-down interventions. It will evolve through experimentation - trying new things, implementing new practices, doing work differently, interacting with colleagues in innovative ways and managing people with the vision and belief that companies can be places where passion is inspired and talent unleashed. It might begin in a few cubicles, with the odd team, workgroup or perhaps even in a department or business unit of a company. Talent can change the workplace for the better if enough people devote their hearts and minds to making it happen. The most important thing is to make a start because the future of work begins now.