40 years from now you will be nearing retirement. How do you think the world of work will have changed in that time? Consider the role of technology, the length of the work weeks and holidays, the role of women and minorities, the type of work sectors, working from home, retirement age, company structure…
Nowadays, the world of work is changing a lot, because of the development of technology, that is why it is very hard to envisage the way this world will evolve, especially in forty years. However, if I had to guess, I would say that technology will be present in every branches of industry, every kind of work could be taken on by robots; and unfortunately, the rate of unemployment will bigger than ever in the world (in spite of the entrance of China on the first role of the world economy), especially for women and minorities resulting from the southern hemisphere.
You wouldn’t need to go to a special place to work, because the only jobs remainings would be in research to elaborate new robots more powerfull, and company would’nt need offices because of the work dematerialization; so everybody could work from home, and many people will develop a new disease called “web addiction”. As people can’t work, the population will become poorer and the cost of living will increase, so people would have to work seven days a week to pay their rents, and nobody could find the time to go on holidays.
The retirement age would go up whithout stopping, as the population is getting older, and finally many concept like holidays or retirement or even week-end would become Utopias.