SHIFT

Autonomous Beings

INTRODUCTION
Remember when we used to all wake up early every morning to workship? We shipped ourselves to our glass boxes as the clock struck morning.

We used to spend our days in cubicles, looking outside the window and waiting for lunch breaks. We had to sit through painful meetings where time slowed down. We had to look busy for the benefit of the manager. But then 2020 began with an unprecedented pandemic. Our homes not even equipped to have us there all day – became places we were locked up in. As we could not go to work, work decided to live at home and us, to work from home.

Everything changed in a matter of days. We became change managers, life managers, our own work managers. The choice to be busy, look busy, work or live life – was our choice whether we chose it or not! From being on autopilot, we made a shift – to becoming autonomous beings. But it’s not been without resistance. As we move further away from centralised control, new ways are being found to reign us in.

Where things are going

Workspaces
Then

Physical

Now

Digital

Later

Phygital

Meetings
Then

Conference Rooms

Now

Virtual

Later

Virtual Reality

Management
Then

Boss

Now

Employee monitoring tool

Later

Hybrid Intelligence

Employee surveillance
Then

Supervisor

Now

Keystroke logging

Later

Wearables

Check-in is a suite of products developed and marketed by Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC). Noting that “83% of companies do not have processes and systems in place to track all of their workforces,” PwC has developed an app that combines location tracking using GPS with a tool that monitors employees’ productivity. The app activates WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities to keep track of which workers have come in contact and uses GPS signals to determine whether employees are in the office.

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Drivers of Change