What does good work mean for you?

Good work has a purpose that meets the values of the person doing the work. The purpose has to be visible and measurable to motivate the person to carry on/improve. Good work is challenging, it needs to develop the person by giving them new skills and a sense of satisfaction when a challenge is achieved. Good work gives a person options, either in terms of career progression or different roles that use the full set of skills of that person (aka helps a person reach their potential). Good work is fairly paid, rewarded and supported. I believe most people want to do a good job but need the time and resources to do it, which relies on good management. Above all a job/work should not be 'Pointless'. This is why someone tightening bolts on a production line (and producing a tangible product) can get a greater sense of satisfaction than a consultant who produces a £20k report that sits on a shelf.

"Good work" is work which gives people a sense of meaning and purpose - even if that is only to earn enough money to do something else. Work on retirement (and the reasons people choose not to retire) confirms the importance of this

However, I think that a review of "good work" needs to at least acknowledge the debate about the future of work and automation. Although past predictions of the end of work have proved wrong, current developments do seem of a different quality. What kinds of work will prove most resistant to automation, and what are most vulnerable? We already see the problem of "left behind" communities which have lost their raison d'etre. Historically work has provided meaning and structure to life, and when it is no longer available people become sick and/or angry. 

There is talk that 250k of 5.4m jobs in the public sector may become automated. This will include jobs where human contact is making a direct (but perhaps uncalulated) positive impact on mental and therefore physical health to both client and worker. That is a fundamental challenge for the future of work; automation and 'systems' may not only weaken human contact (the social aspect of work) they could also reinforce the high degree of control in work and the sanction  on innovation in areas such as private sector call centre marketing.

One of the big mistakes of the last Labour Government was not use to bank nationalization as a way of changing culture; forcing investment in small and micro business, ensuring local bank presence and breaking up real estate portfolios and using the assets for social and economic good. The future of work could be influenced by the choices made in the fact of continuing austerity: the sale of assets to fight fires such as social care demand rather than using them in the best way possible for community aspiration.

Apart from technology; an aging workforce will also impact on the future of work. There is - I think - a myth that older people have to keep working. Some/many chose perhaps because the lifestyle comfort of the baby boomers is not something that they want to give up. Life expectation could well be higher across all socio-income groups which means that with renumeration the dangerous threat to economic sustainability will continue to be credit (and we know where that got us in 2008).

People will begin to look at their total reward package. Not just leave or staff discounts but everything from duvet days, sickness entitlement (the culture is now that you must turn up even though you may be too sick to really be productive - how silly is that?) to share options and profit sharing. Indeed, the days of 9-5 pay may not survive the next 50 years but this will require solutions such as a citizens income and a welfare system that returns to something like it was instead of punitive punishment and sanction. It also raises bigger questions of reform of the tax system (ie NI type contributions being used for just that rather than a general pool that the politicians can dip into for all sorts of things).

Good work should have room for innovation (which is a crucial factor in enabling a modern, competitive economy) linked to a good degree of control (flatter organisations with less 'paperwork' which demands more managers), therefore narrower pay differentials between top and bottom, the ability to locate where the worker wishes rather than the demand of being in an office somewhere even though the work could be done remotely....perhaps most of all, the impact needs to be transparent. A good leader/manager needs to be able to communicate to his/her team members where there work has had impact, why they are doing something....and ensure that they have the tools to do the job. Poor IT, someone throwing a strop in another department or being a jobs worth, the influence of home life on work....all these issues need to addressed rather than being accepted as inevitable office politics.

'Good work' is as much about our working culture as anything. Even the way that we are required to dress....the piece of knotted cloth around a man's neck (whats that all about?), the heel requirement for female employees in some law firms (damage someone's physical health...yes that will make them productive (!!))

#goodworkis cooperating and collaborating to co-create a better future by playing to our strengths in ways that make our weaknesses irrelevant

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