Before our eyes, remote work and freelancing are changing not only the daily routine, but also the inner world. What will happen to us in the digital age? Where and how will we work?
Artificial intelligence, digitalization, upgrading skills, changing career trajectories… It seems that new technologies are taking us into the world of the unknown at space speed. “You have to run as fast just to stay in place, and to get somewhere, you have to run at least twice as fast!” — this visionary statement of the main character of «Alice in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll today can easily become the epigraph of our professional biography.
We are constantly learning, mastering new technologies. And yet we experience some confusion: who needs us in this rapidly changing world? 40% of Russians are dissatisfied with the level of their digital competencies, according to VTsIOM. What will help you make friends with digital technologies and build a career on the Web?
Trends for a careerist
The change that affected almost everyone was the transition to remote work. “In an instant, geographic boundaries blurred in the labor market and it became possible to recruit employees in different regions and countries,” says HR specialist, CEO of the recruitment web service Dina Bayasanova. — Employees and employers are no longer tied to a specific geographic location.
We have the opportunity to choose the companies in which we want to work, not only in the local market, but also in the global one. However, with the expansion of geography, competition has also increased. You have to think about what competencies will help you keep your job or move up the career ladder.”
It turned out that completely different qualities are important for working on the Web than for office everyday life. At the peak of demand now are such personal competencies as flexibility, adaptability, self-discipline and self-motivation. Without them, we simply will not be able to successfully work online.
Digitalization of work has become one of the most important trends in the labor market. We use video calling programs almost every day, we are used to participating in online conferences, taking training and even taking exams remotely. But there are also difficulties associated with this.
“It was very unusual for me to negotiate with clients on Zoom,” says 34-year-old Veronica. — I didn’t know how to show a presentation, create a general chat, adjust the sound, and just add users. I wanted to rewind time back so that everything was the same as before, familiar. I was confused, I didn’t feel like a professional anymore, I was afraid to turn on the camera, I was angry with myself for doing everything so slowly.”
scary vs interesting
For some of us, technical skills are not easy, while others quickly learn all the possibilities of remote work platforms. Why it happens? From the point of view of the perception of the virtual world, everyone can be divided into technophiles and technophobes.
The first, and this is approximately 75% of users, have a positive attitude towards new technologies: they believe that digitalization is beneficial, improves life and helps to solve real problems1. Technophiles quickly get used to new programs and applications, ask their colleagues if something is not clear to them: how to enable voting, show a slide.
But technophobes, who are about 25% of us, are more likely to be silent and wait to be told which button to press, or simply ignore the new option. They are not ready to ask for help, discuss their user experience. New technology for them is just a tool for solving a problem, but not a means of communication. But this attitude can be changed.
“We are all now in the same conditions,” explains social psychologist Timofey Nestik. — Imagine that you are exploring a desert island and it is vital for you to learn as many facts about it as possible. Now write to a colleague in the chat and ask about what you do not understand. Even negative experiences can be overcome through communication. That way you make sure the technology is safe, because others have already tamed this beast.”
The eye of Sauron
Some of us are afraid that with the help of digital technologies their behavior will be controlled from the outside or that their geolocation may be tracked, so we tape the camera on our smartphone or laptop.
We have become hostages of a paradoxical situation, Timofey Nestik points out: on the one hand, digital means for remote work are developing and we cannot but use technology, on the other hand, we are afraid of them. It seems that it will take time for us to get used to, begin to trust the Network and stop perceiving it as the all-seeing eye of Sauron.
But today we really can’t just go home after work and be alone with ourselves or with our loved ones. “The advent of remote work has led to the fact that we are constantly in a state of complete nakedness, publicity,” states Timofey Nestik. — During the pandemic, the border between intimate and public was swept clean.
And we turned out to be vulnerable not even from the point of view of control, but from the point of view of the fact that the social rhythms with which we marked our space were destroyed, delimiting the private and the public. Therefore, we wanted to completely disconnect from the digital world, become invisible on the Web.
In addition, many of us have felt the signs of learned information helplessness: we began to think that no channel of information is trustworthy — neither bloggers nor official media. Distrust of digital technologies as a means of communication makes it difficult to transfer work processes to a digital environment.”
But there is nowhere to go: we can not watch the news and not read the friend feed, however, as a tool for working, the Network is with us, most likely, forever.
Changing the image
We created the digital environment, and now it is re-creating us, thanks to it we get to know the personal lives of colleagues much faster and in more detail than before, just like they do with ours. “We are no longer one-dimensional images with the labels “leader” or “employee”, which are forever turned to each other on the same side, notes Timofey Nestik.
— Now you have to accept yourself and your colleagues as a whole, with all the interests, family problems, hobbies. By reopening the Web, we are moving from a model of employee well-being to a model of individual well-being.”
We are no longer interested in employers who care only about our training, emotional tone management, time management, stress management or communication support — this is not enough. With the help of networking that has filled life, we want to build a strategy for our well-being and success in life.
The trend of the next five to seven years is the replacement of traditional professions with hybrid, digital ones, Dina Bayasanova believes. And we will soon become translators between machines and other people. For example, the profession of a driver is being modified: he will no longer turn the steering wheel, but will turn into an operator of machines that provide quality service.
The psychologist will remain with us as an interlocutor, but his tools will become digital, as in many other professions. For example, yesterday will be testing a personality profile during a consultation: the client will take psychometric tests on the Web on their own.
Chatbots and robots, the functionality of which is improving every day, will become our assistants. But they won’t replace us. Empathy, emotional intelligence, the ability to feel, not just think, are what distinguishes us from machines. And this “original software” will help us not only quickly change our career trajectory, but also manage new resources.
Confidence in this is given by the experience of 2020, which showed that any business (except for services that are provided manually) can go online.
1 G. Soldatova, E. Rasskazova, T. Nestik “The Digital Generation of Russia: Competence and Security” (Sense, 2017).