Think "Work", not "Job"

The concept of a "job" may be going out the window.

"The modern world is on the verge of another huge leap in creativity and productivity, but the job is not going to be part of tomorrow's economic reality," says William Bridges, management consultant and author of Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes.

"There... will always be enormous amounts of work to do, but it is not going to be contained in the familiar envelopes we call jobs, " Bridges wrote in an issue of Fortune magazine The job is an idea that emerged in the early 19th century to package work in the factories and bureaucracies of industrialized nations.

Today, more and more companies are eliminating jobs and organizing work on a part-time, temporary or contract basis.

"Today's organization is rapidly being transformed from a structure built out of jobs into a field of work needing to be done," Bridges says.

To succeed in a de-jobbed world, workers need to learn a whole new set of attitudes. Bridges recommends:

• Instead of looking for a "job", look for "work" that needs doing.
• Manage yourself as though you were a one-person business.
• Look at an organization's un-met needs and emerging problems as opportunities and be prepared to provide solutions.
• If you have a job, being a good employee is not enough. Think like an external vendor and see the organization as your customer. Find ways to add value and deliver service. Don't look at work that needs doing in terms of "my job" or "not my job".
• Don't rely solely on qualifications such as degrees, length of experience in a job, or recommendations. The qualifications that will count most in a de-jobbed world are what Bridges calls DATA

[back to Switchboard page]