Four Things We Can Do Today to Fix the Future of Work

(Because we haven't got enough to do...)

It is the run up to Christmas which is obviously the perfect time for me to be contemplating the future of work. My emotional labour has doubled, my present buying has tripled and my productivity has fallen through the floor. I have managed to acquire every circulating virus in the northwest of England and now appear to have a mild combination of whooping cough, Covid and mince pie overload. All of this while wrapping gifts, finishing deadlines and navigating the annual negotiation over whose family we are visiting on Boxing Day.

If December ever needed a case study on the invisible labour of women, I would be Exhibit A.

So yes. This is exactly when I should be thinking about the next fifty years of work, women, AI and productivity. Because it is not only about how my life works now. It is also about the world my teenage daughters are stepping into. I feel like if the past few months have shown me anything, it is that much of our current national malaise can be summed up in that famous old line. It is the economy, stupid.

Work shapes nearly everything. Our wellbeing. Our relationships. Our sense of purpose. Our financial security. The kind of society we live in and the opportunities our children will have. Which is why we need a future of work that actually works for people. All people. Not just for those still operating under the assumptions of a 1950s office and a 19th century factory.

One of the most interesting trends right now is that women in their 40s and 50s are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the UK. You could call this a triumph of innovation and opportunity. I am less convinced. A lot of it looks a lot more like burnout and toxic workplace cultures. I do not think we can celebrate a wave of midlife entrepreneurship without also acknowledging that women are often leaving traditional employment because work is simply not designed to accommodate the realities of their lives.

All of this has been on my mind because I have recently been invited to a closed-door briefing at Westminster early in the new year. It is hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modernising Employment, and it will unveil new research into how work needs to be redesigned for the digital age. The invitation made me stop, cough violently, and wonder what I would actually want to say in a room full of policymakers, CHROs and union leaders.

So here it is. My short list. Four things we can do right now to build a future of work that increases productivity, supports wellbeing and gives the next generation a fighting chance at a stable economy.

1. Measure outcomes not hours

The job-based model of work is crumbling. It assumes that value is created through the time someone spends in a chair. This logic made sense in the industrial era when work was physical, repetitive and observable. It makes no sense when value is created through creativity, problem solving, knowledge, communication and collaboration.

Hours have become a proxy for trust. Which is absurd when you think about it. Nobody has ever done their best work while watching the clock.

Instead of policing time, we need to design work around outcomes. What are we trying to achieve? What does good look like? How do we measure it fairly? This shift has been talked about for years but AI and automation make it unavoidable. As technology takes on more tasks, the human contribution becomes more about judgment, synthesis and care. These cannot be measured in minutes.

A future of work that measures outcomes is a future where parents, carers and chronically ill employees are not penalised for being efficient. It is also a future where productivity becomes meaningful rather than performative. Did you know that mothers with two children have been found to be the most productive people in the workplace? This makes me sad in a weird way.

2. Make lifelong learning a cultural norm

We are entering a world where skills have a shorter shelf life than yoghurt. Yet most workers still only receive formal training when they start a job or when something goes wrong. This is not sustainable in an economy shaped by constant technological change.

We need a labour market where learning is continuous, accessible and normal. Not remedial or optional. This is particularly important for women who often step in and out of paid work due to caring responsibilities and then find themselves disadvantaged by outdated skills frameworks.

Lifelong learning does not mean everyone should become a coder. It means learning how to work with technology rather than be sidelined by it. It means building confidence and capability. It means supporting midlife workers who want to pivot into new careers. And yes, it means preparing our children for a world where adaptability is the most valuable skill of all.

3. Build a FusionWork model that combines human and digital capability

One of the most compelling ideas emerging from Bloor Research is what they call FusionWork. The idea is simple. Work in the future will be produced through a blend of human and digital capability. Humans do what humans do best. AI does what AI does best.

AI should deliver the outputs. Humans should deliver the outcomes.

This is not about replacing people. It is about redesigning work so that humans are not spending half their week on tasks that could be automated. It is about building organisations around capabilities rather than static roles. It is also about treating digital workers as part of the workforce. Not in an emotional sense. In a governance sense. Organisations already have huge digital labour systems operating with no oversight, no measurement and no ethical framework.

This is risky. And also wasteful.

FusionWork offers a blueprint for creating clarity. What are the human capabilities we want to grow? What are the digital capabilities we want to deploy? How do we ensure they support each other? How do we keep people at the centre of decision making even when AI is doing more of the heavy lifting?

4. Build real AI governance before it is too late

Cheney Hamilton from Bloor Research put it bluntly in a recent article. “Businesses are automating production faster than the economy can sustain consumption.”

Imagine it like this. A consumer buys products from Amazon every week. AI optimisation reduces costs and automates tasks. The consumer’s job is then automated out of existence. They lose their income. They stop buying Amazon. Multiply that scenario across millions of households and you have a collapse in consumer demand.

This is not science fiction. It is a straightforward economic loop. If we want a healthy economy, we need a labour market that supports human participation. Which means we need AI governance that protects workers, supports upskilling and promotes workforce sustainability.

AI is here whether we like it or not. We cannot ignore it. But we absolutely can design policies that make work more human rather than less.

I will be at the Houses of Parliament in early January to discuss these issues and I would love your input. What worries you most about the future of work? What gives you hope? What questions would you ask?

As always, thank you for reading and for joining me in these conversations. The future of work does not have to be bleak. It can be reshaped. And if December has taught me anything, it is that women are already doing the hard work of keeping the world spinning. The least we can do is design a system that recognises it.

Finally…

I would love to hear your thoughts on how we can make the future of work brighter for everyone. I have written another article which explores the history of women’s work.

You can support my work by sharing this article, commenting or connecting with me on Instagram @gisellegoodwinwrites, LinkedIn or subscribing here on Substack Giselle Goodwin.

If you would like to explore my research further you can find my book ‘Can Women Really Have It All?’ on Amazon, Audible or inWaterstones UK

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