«What has changed the most is the way we work»

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How will work change in the future? How are the changes that are currently taking place, such as demographics or new technologies, affecting you? These are some of the few reflections that  Juan Menéndez-Valdés , director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions ( Eurofound ), responded to during the opening conference of the II International Congress of Work Psychology and HR. .HH. that will take place in the city of Valencia until next March 3.

In the opinion of Juan Menéndez-Valdés , "what has changed the most is the way we work . " In fact, he highlighted that “we do not know what jobs are going to be created. Historically, whenever jobs have been destroyed, they have been Email Data created in other areas . However, despite artificial intelligence, robots, automation, etc., what is currently “irreplaceable is the capacity for innovation, research, talent, etc., of people. That is, we are more efficient in what needs to be invented .

To reach this conclusion, the speaker has taken a tour and analyzed different parameters. Thus, in terms of global demographics, "as we have insisted on living much longer, there is not going to be a pension system that can support it and if we have to work longer, we will have to do it better . " In fact, he has given a very graphic example: «at the beginning of the s. XX, Europe represented 25% of the world population while in 2050 this figure will be reduced to 5% .

Regarding the way of working, "there are many of the things we do at work that we continue to do essentially in the same way" , he highlighted, such as "the regularity of working hours in Spain" , where the same hours, same weeks and in the same way as it was done previously. The number of temporary workers has not changed enormously either; the number of self-employed workers is not growing especially except in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. However, -he pointed out- "part-time employment is indeed growing . "




The distribution of risk and benefit

«Nothing changes, until it changes. Nor can we say that nothing is changing but we must analyze the small changes that are occurring since they affect work ," stressed  Juan Menéndez-Valdés . In this sense, he has made reference to teleworking where in Europe it represents 17% and while in Spain it is around 13%.

Another aspect that has not been overlooked has been the salary. «Previously they paid us a salary for completing a few hours, now companies pay you for fulfilling an objective that allows you to balance work and family life. These advantages - she has stressed - pose a series of challenges such as what is my working time, what is the border between work and my personal life..."

He has also listed another premise that has also changed, such as the distribution of risk and benefit. "In an uncertain world, much of that risk or benefit is transferred from the company to the worker . " At this point, although he has not verbalized it, he has defined the false self-employed person. "Before it was clear what a self-employed person was and what an employee was" and he has referred to cases such as Uber , Deliveroo , etc., where it is not clear whether he is a self-employed person or an employee.

Juan Menéndez-Valdés has cited other workers such as those based on “coupons” that change the relationship between employer and employee; shared employees, where one works for several companies since none of them can offer a sufficient volume of work; or the changes that have led to the development of new technologies that "have opened a global world to small businesses and the self-employed .