Changing forms of work

The concept of "New Work" goes back to the 1970s. It was essentially described by Frithjof Bergmann. At the same time, it marks the transition from an industrial to a knowledge society. Various drivers are dramatically changing the way we work: Above all, this includes globalization. The fact that time and space are hardly an obstacle anymore means that production can take place anywhere in the world. This leads to more and more multinational corporations. At the same time, worldwide migration is on the rise. Around one third of all migrants worldwide live in Europe. This is forced by poverty, wars and other conflicts. From the point of view of occupational health and safety, this means that this has not been the last pandemic and that further epidemics will follow. Because of this, sustainable concepts should be developed to be well prepared for future pandemics.

Demographic change and more agile forms of work

Bergmann sees the end of classic wage labor coming and believes that we must not continue to subject ourselves to work, but that in the future it must be the other way around. According to the philosopher, the fact that work should be fun is actually only an intermediate stage on the way to much more meaningful and self-determined work. New Work organizes work radically differently and leads to more freedom for employees. Even though Bergmann conceded that few companies have implemented the New Work concept in his sense, there are now some that are applying many elements of his concept with spatial and temporal flexibilization of work performance, flatter hierarchies and agile forms of work.

The second trend is demographic change. The low birth rates in Europe are leading to imbalances in the social systems and also increasingly in the labor market. The consequence will be a further increase in the working life age, as flexible as possible from a health perspective. From the point of view of occupational health and safety, some professions are not compatible with a longer working life. An intensive care nurse over 70 years of age, a roofer or a garbage worker are hardly conceivable, whereas professors could well continue to teach well beyond the age of 70.

Changing job profiles

The most significant trend is toward digitization and virtualization. Technological progress is resulting in ever faster and shorter innovation cycles. Lifelong learning is the order of the day. It will no longer be possible to get through professional life with only an initial education. That is why job profiles will also change. Monotonous jobs will disappear, but new jobs will be created at the interface between man and machine.

The pandemic has dramatically accelerated the digitalization of the working world. New forms of work, such as the home or mobile office, will become increasingly prevalent, and video conferencing is gradually replacing real meetings. Before Corona, we in Central Europe had a presence fetishism; we drove to the office Monday through Friday, spent hours fighting our way back and forth through rush-hour traffic in the metropolises. Post Covid, however, nothing will ever be the same again. From the point of view of occupational medicine, this means that new stresses are emerging. Phenomena such as the "zoom fatique syndrome," the one-sided stress caused by many or long video conferences, are now appearing among employees.

New working models

Ultimately, there are two new settings for occupational health and safety. In the future, people will be working more on the Internet and in their home offices. The boundaries of work are being removed. The constant accessibility means that rest periods are almost completely eliminated. Employees tend to work more in the home office than in the office. However, top performers in particular often fear that their commitment will not be recognized because they hardly ever see each other in person.

Rigid regulations are not what Bergmann has in mind; rather, it's about flexibility to suit each individual. In other words, it's not in his spirit to turn off the e-mail servers in the evening so that employees don't work too much. This is especially popular among employees with children. After all, when the kids are in bed, parents can work undisturbed. The antiquated rigidity of the (German) Working Hours Act also does not fit in with New Work. HR policy must be life-phase oriented so that companies have a chance to counter the shortage of skilled workers in the "war for talents".

New focus on health protection

The classic fields of action in health promotion, exercise, nutrition, stress and addiction are also particularly relevant in the home office. We move significantly less in the home office. This has been proven by studies, e.g. by Fitbit. In the area of nutrition, too, the sale of ready-to-serve pizzas, for example, has increased considerably since the pandemic. However, mental health appears to be one of the most important areas for action. The intensification and dissolution of work boundaries under the conditions of the disruptive VUCA world is now a de facto burden on almost every second employee. In the meantime, the focus has shifted significantly in the area of addiction. For many decades, the focus was on tobacco and alcohol prevention, but now it is topics such as financial well-being and fashion drugs that are causing concern.

For the Internet setting, work is becoming increasingly flexible. However, technical challenges, from line speed to data security, are again reducing the freedom gained. It is alarming that there are now almost five million people in Germany who are addicted to the Internet and gambling. The dependence on social networks is also enormous for many.

Mental illness on the rise

Contemporary benefit packages are part of New Work. Here, aspects of a company's sustainability strategy are increasingly involved. Whereas company cars and technical hobbies used to be the preference of employees, today it is daycare centers, job bikes and gyms.

The concept of work-life balance is outdated and is changing into work-life blending. This allows for individual volumes and rhythms of work so that it doesn't get out of hand in stress for anyone. Some people need to be protected from themselves and slowed down in their work zeal.

Mental illnesses are on the rise in the age of New Work. However, they often arise from complex interactions between environment, work and private life. This is why more digital health interventions will be needed in the future to serve people in all settings at a low threshold.

Managers must continuously develop their skills

Central adjusting screw for healthy work of the future are the (lower) managers. They must lead hybrid teams and maintain creativity, team spirit and productivity. In addition, they are personally responsible for absenteeism and presenteeism among employees. If companies used to look at the sickness rate of the workforce, in the future they will have to shift their focus to the 95 percent who are present. If you sustainably maintain their performance, you can achieve great effects. Managers must be prepared for the challenges of the knowledge society with a kind of home office driver's license and must continuously develop their skills.

Appreciation, especially across hierarchies, is becoming the central management tool. Since most managers in Switzerland are selected according to professional criteria and not according to their soft skills, they have an urgent need for qualification. "No value creation without appreciation" applies across all industries. This means that leadership style correlates with performance, sick leave and employee productivity.

Employees in the duty

Employee participation is an important basis for the full realization of New Work. Workers should be able to articulate how they want their work to be structured. And they themselves also know best about the stresses and strains of work. As an outlook, it can be said that the knowledge society will establish itself much faster as a result of Covid-19. Many industries will face the challenge of recruiting qualified personnel. Especially in stressful, precarious jobs such as at the airport, in the hotel and catering industry or nursing, there will be massive staff shortages. Nevertheless, the nursing professions in particular will be doubly affected by demographic change: there are more and more older, multimorbid patients and fewer and fewer young workers because of the low birth rate. Even though Bergmann said it would not be a misfortune if many of these precarious professions disappeared, they are still indispensable to our civilized society. Not everything can be digitized, and stressful jobs will still have to be performed in the future.

Bergmann describes the necessary process thus: "The goal of new work is not to free people from work, but to transform work so that it produces free, self-determined, human beings."