The desire for flexibility, an employee-employer power shift and the death of the commute are defining the latest work era
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The future of work was foretold half a century ago, not in commerce but in art.
In Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s 1953 oil painting “Golconda,” a throng of identically dressed men in trench coats and bowler hats fill the sky, framed only by buildings. They exist in tight, monotonous formation. Only on close inspection can you see any individuality on their faces. The suggestion of office life as surreal imprisonment is clear.
In 2022, the prisoners have jumped the barricades. The air is full of The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting. Nearly half of senior HR leaders surveyed by consulting firm Gartner Inc. are now concerned by “mass turnover events.” Gone are the assumptions of an era the painting captured: capitalism’s soaring postwar ambition, when professional and technical work quadrupled. When wearing the white collar of a suit and tie (versus the blue collar of manufacturing overalls) brought higher earnings and status. When conformity and a daily commute into gleaming city skyscrapers were a price worth paying for the promise of promotion.
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