The Ego Perspective: Workforce Considerations

Today, we are witnessing a working world of near unlimited opportunities, thanks to the complexities of an economic world shaped by Industry 4.0. This ‘working world 4.0’ is rife with trends and phenomena, but one of its most fascinating aspects is its seemingly contradictory nature: New Work means digital yet it also means human, it stands for global yet individual, automated yet decelerated, virtual yet local. For the younger generation, in particular, this world of work offers almost limitless freedom of choice. The world is open to them in the truest sense of the word—geographically (due to globalisation), in terms of industries (due to increased demand for labour in all sectors), and in terms of information (due to many and varied opportunities to acquire knowledge). Not even the current coronavirus pandemic will change this. Although freedom of movement is currently restricted in many respects, the pandemic will have little effect on this general accessibility in the long and medium term. There are many educational pathways that make it possible to benefit from these developments, and most of them are freely accessible. At the same time, the half-life of knowledge is continuously shrinking, making a commitment to lifelong learning and continuous professional development imperative in order to keep pace with the demands of the labour market. Due to a shift in the balance of power—we now speak of an employee market rather than the usual employer market—employers have less and less influence on education and career choices. Today it is the employer’s task to meet the very self-confident expectations of their employees with the right incentives. A task that is made even more demanding by the multitude of interests among employees, both in terms of work as well as individual work-life balance.