Let’s Not Wait For Tomorrow

Fear of being obsolete is the fifth of my six drivers of change related to our relationship with technology. But I think FOBO is only scratching the surface of the issue. Why are people so afraid of being obsolete at work? I believe it is an existential issue around identity. We are so intertwined with what we do for a living that we forget who we are as a person. The thought of not working or not having any work to do is paralyzing because without work we are nothing and no one.

I recently listened to an interesting podcast about a gentleman who struck it big in the app business. The gentleman’s name is Allen Wong. At just 25 years old he began bringing in amounts of cash that he never dreamed possible and, so, decided to retire. Can you imagine retiring at the age of 25? Some of us hope we can retire when we are 65 and for some that is simply a dream that will never come true. But this guy retires when most of us are just finding our way in the crazy corporate world. During the podcast, he talked about struggling the first several years after retirement. He says,  “The first few years of retirement were actually really hard for me because I really didn’t know what to do afterwards”. When people would ask him what he did for a living he wouldn’t have an answer. It made him feel bad and no amount of travel or spending money could help. Eventually, he found himself through volunteer work. Allen goes on to say “People keep trying to ask me what I do because they want to know who I am, what I’m like, and stuff like that. And I don’t even know myself because I don’t really have an identity, I don’t think. And I’m OK with that”. Even after years of soul searching, the best he could come up with was that he doesn’t have an identity and he is ok with that. That is striking because the immediate thought is of course you have an identity, you are Allen Wong. Even for someone who has had time to grapple with what many of us may be forced to grapple with in the future, he is still pinned down by the age-old idea that we are intrinsically tied to a job title.

Hi, my name is April Gorelik, HR Director for an HVAC company. The sentence rolls off the tongue. I think about this often. If I removed myself from what I do for a living, what would I say? Hi, my name is April Gorelik, a mom of two who loves to run. That sounds better than HR Director in my opinion. So how do we navigate this changing paradigm? It is something we need to be thinking about now because fear will, without a doubt, certainly shape our relationship with technology, and technology is coming whether we like it or not.

This is where futures work comes in. By exploring different scenarios and understanding the implications that come along with change we can better situate ourselves for the future. There are a lot of opinions and quite a bit of actors in this movie called work. On one hand, we have a labor shortage that is said to continue. On the other hand, technology is racing in, threatening to take millions of jobs. Can a cashier at McDonalds really transition into one of the hundreds of open tech jobs? Will they even want to? Who is to say that that job won’t be taken by the time that person is ready to step into the role? Open talent is another popular trend and with the help of AI a single person can do the job of many in a matter of just a few hours. Who’s to say companies won’t continue along the trend of open talent as a resource instead of hiring staff full-time? Then what does that McDonalds cashier do once they’ve graduated from tech school? They have competition breathing down their back and finding an entry-level job may be next to impossible. We could continue down this rabbit hole for a very long time but I think you get my point. Waiting for tomorrow is a waste of today.

I want to explore what removing the fear of becoming obsolete might look like through the lens of removing the connection of identity to a job title. Meet Amy. She is a bright-eyed and eager call center agent who just started working two years ago. She learns quickly and loves helping people. Clearly, the life of a call center agent hasn’t gotten to her yet. She has big plans. She wants to run the call center in the next five years and hopes to work her way up to a lead position soon to keep her trajectory moving forward. She is an asset to the company and certainly not an employee they want to lose. But they have a new system onboarding that is going to end up replacing 75% of their call center staff. AI will now handle the majority of the calls with just a few employees left behind to manage more challenging cases. The organization has some very senior-level people who know the system well and losing them is out of the question. But they can only keep so many employees. How do you make a decision like this? The company decides to string this transition out. They will let 25% go within the first year, then another quarter the next year, and finally in the third year they will let the last quarter go. They decide to do everything they can to help the employees who are on the chopping block offering them tuition reimbursement, counseling sessions, placement services, and stay bonuses.

This is a huge blow for Amy. Obviously, working in a call center is useless. No matter where she goes, she is just going to be replaced by AI. She is so young, who would pick her over someone more experienced? Amy takes the company up on its offer and decides to start with counseling sessions. Let’s figure out what it is that you want to do, says the counselor. Who are you really? Oh, what a question! Well, Amy realizes she likes helping people. That is what drew her to the call center. So she is a people person. She also has a passion for human-to-human contact. Great! She grew up in a gadget-filled world and is used to constant change and being completely connected to her phone. Technological agility is an excellent skill to have. Eventually, Amy sets out to create a fifteen-year plan for herself. But she isn’t focused on work anymore and instead focuses on the core of who she is. She is a people person who is good with technology but prefers to have human contact. She thinks about who she wants to be as a person and puts together a plan that centers around that instead of a job title. After a few months of fiddling with her plan, she has finally decided that she would like to pursue elder care. She starts to volunteer at an elder care facility and is taking classes on the side. Might as well use the tuition reimbursement while the company is offering it. Amy is now thinking about herself as a human being and finds passion in just being around others and giving back to her community. Sure, she could be replaced by a robot as an elder caregiver but that isn’t what she is focused on anymore. Just because something or someone takes her role doesn’t mean they take her value, and that value can be transferred anywhere. She feels at peace with this.

Obviously, nothing will be perfect, and redefining how we think about ourselves is not as easy as a few therapy sessions. It’s Your Future…. Make it a Good One! by Verne Wheelwright is certainly a good place to start. This book takes you through a rigorous thought process, opening up your mind to your future possibilities. Wheelwright purposefully has you identify your values so that you stay aligned with who you are as you plan out your possible futures. In the end, it is your values that truly define you, not the job you hold.

The shift is happening and addressing this issue now will help to ease the transition for many. Organizations should begin to think about how they can support their employees not just in their role at work but in finding value in who they are as a human being. Many organizations already offer employee support programs, resource groups, and discounts on mental health programs. Let’s add to that. Let’s empower our employees to explore what their world will look like fifteen, or twenty years from now through workshops and training sessions. Let’s change our corporate culture to appreciate the intrinsic value a person has instead of the dollars they bring in for the organization. It is with actions like these that we can ease the fear of becoming obsolete, creating a more positive experience for everyone as we enter a new era of what work is.