As a sophomore in college, I have often heard that my generation will face a growing number of problems when entering the work force in America. Faced with issues such as unsustainable work environments, low wages and unemployment, the future of work in the Unites States will be difficult unless these obstacles are addressed.
Unsustainable work environments in a traditional work setting are the first problem facing the workplace and one that will require different solutions based on the specific occupation. The traditional workplace can be seen as ineffective due to its structure and the many distractions that workers face on a day-to-day basis. Structurally, many people complain about the lack of diversity in their traditional workplaces, stating that people are often grouped together by their positions and cannot branch out and share ideas between departments. While many workplaces such as the Center for Social Innovation exist today, that attempt to eliminate the strict structural boundaries of the traditional workplace by creating a “co-working space, community and Launchpad for people who are changing the world” (CSI), these innovative work environments cannot work for certain professions.
Furthermore, according to workplace innovator Jason Fried, the biggest problem facing the traditional workplace is distraction. From meetings to emails to interruptions from managers, Fried believes that workers in a traditional work setting are constantly kept from being productive. His is solution is to make “people stay away from each other while they are working, because when people are all together all the time, they tend to constantly interrupt each other” (Fried). While this can be true I think the issue with distraction goes further than communication with coworkers and bosses. When people are dissatisfied with their occupations they tend to put in less work and are more likely to be distracted. Technological distractions such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram are big contributors to the lack of productivity in the workplace, much more than a morning meeting can be.
The second problem facing the workplace is low wages given and an equality in who payment between genders and racial groups. According to the Economic Policy Institute, approximately one fourth of the population in America was receiving low wage income of about $11.06 an hour in 2012 for full-time jobs. From this 25%, “Female, young, and minority workers are overrepresented in the ranks of low-wage workers, when “low-wage” is defined as below the wage that a full-time, full-year worker would have to earn to live above the federally defined poverty threshold for a family of four” (EPI). Because of these unfair wage levels family incomes increased by less than half of a percent, negatively affecting the livelihood of many people across America.
The third problem facing the future of work is unemployment, particularly the unemployment levels of recent college graduates. According to Slate Magazine roughly “8.5 percent of college graduates between the ages of 21 and 24” (Weissmann) are not employed at the present time in America and about another “16.8 percent of new grads are “underemployed,” (Weissmann) which means they are either looking for a job, unemployed and not looking or working only part-time and unable to land a full time job. While this is discouraging, I am hopeful that in the upcoming years we can reach helpful resolutions for each of these issues and improve the workplace for future generations and ourselves.
Sources
http://nyc.socialinnovation.org/about
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp341-future-of-work/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/05/08/unemployment_and_the_class_of_2014_how_bad_is_the_job_market_for_new_college.html
http://bigthink.com/videos/the-biggest-problem-in-the-traditional-workplace-interruptions
I find your comments on unemployment and distraction very similar to my own post. Distraction is no doubt one of the biggest killers of productivity. I’ve been distracted myself just trying to get my school work done. I also agree with your sentiment that distraction mostly comes from an individual basis of self-distraction, rather than meetings. It seems that this day and age many people claim that they can multi-task, or set it as one of their many skills. I feel that if one has the ability to “multi-task” while watching youtube videos and getting work done, then they should have the ability to “multi-task” during meetings and continue to get their work done. Distraction, I feel, is largely self imposed, possibly due to people being unsatisfied or strained in their jobs, are not feeling comfortable in their environment. Unemployment is also something I mentioned, but I focused more on the internships, stealing away employable opportunities. 16.8% of grads being unemployed is a horrendous amount, almost 1/5th of all grads aren’t able to land a job. I believe a remedy to this is to have companies focus on training their future employees with pay, rather than exploit internship opportunities to further company gain. The work industry may face many issues in the coming future.