A few days ago, I was searching around on the web for information about leadership (in relation to a new project with Elaine Biech for a Leadership Handbook, but more on that another time), when I stumbled across an article by one of ASTD Press's authors, Alexandra Levit. In the September-October issue of The Futurist, she writes about the future world of work, from her perspective as a Gen Xer. As a Gen Xer myself, I was interested in what she had to say. These are some of the trends that she sees on the horizon:

• We'll have to deal with the loss of brain power as Boomers in management start to retire in droves, and we'll have more diverse work places with Boomers who work for personal fulfillment and immigrants to make up the loss of brain power.
• The companies that we work for will get smaller, as everything that can be outsourced will be outsourced.
• Many of us won't actually be full-time employees of organizations; instead, we'll be consultants and temporary workers.
• Because we can work from various locations, we will. As a result, the work day will grow longer and more flexible.  
• The projects that we work on will change constantly, requiring that we be flexible and adaptive.

Alexandra thinks that these things sound exciting, but I am trying to decide what I think about it.... Well, I can recognize some of the excitement in it, certainly. The ability to work on the fly, to shift tactics quickly, to adapt--it all has a kind of video-game feel that's kind of fun, how fast can you go and how fast can you get out of way of the objects flying at you (for some reason, all I can picture is a roller rink with an assortment of obstacles rolling past that you have to duck). Also, the potential independence of a situation where you are your own employee, working on a project-by-project basis for an organization. That's kind of nice, too.

But there are some downsides as well. For example, I already don't like how much work creeps into home life and the work day expands, expectations of your availability change too. Also, there's a lot to be said for the value of being part of an organization, the value of contributing to something larger than yourself on an ongoing basis. So there are pluses and minuses. Anybody else have a thought?

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