I am not sure if this would sound like Aesops Fables.
Once upon a time, in a fluorescent-lit jungle full of cubicles, humans woke up, put on pants (sometimes), and went to places called “offices” where they… did things. They were called “employees.” They had bosses, parking spots, water cooler gossip, and an inexplicable addiction to Excel.
But that world? It’s dead. Buried somewhere between fax machines and annual appraisals.
Employment as we knew it is over. And no, this isn’t a LinkedIn humblebrag post about freelancing from Bali with a MacBook and a matcha latte.
This is a hard stare at reality, iced with a slice of truth and served with zero filters.
Let’s take a look at what has seen the ‘sell by expiry date ‘- The 9 to 5 rigmarole: It is now officially a punchline in Gen Z memes. The Org Chart: Aka the human zoo layout. Looks pretty. Does nothing. Loyalty to a logo:People are loyal to purpose, not pension plans. One Career Forever: That’s like committing to one brand of cereal for life. Madness.
Work is no longer a place you go to. It is a thing that you plug into. Companies now tap skills on demand — designers from Ukraine, coders in Bangalore, strategists in Madrid — all working on the same problem while never wearing pants. For eg look at Netflix’s global content team? Scattered across continents, united by Slack and sarcasm.
The emergence of a new class: The Creator Employee: Today’s talent doesn’t want to be owned. They want to create. And smart orgs? They encourage it.
Think of your team as a bunch of Netflix Originals, not reruns of a 90s sitcom. Duolingo’s social media team is a meme machine. People stay for the work, not for the job title.
The whole balance shtick assumes work and life are opponents.
They’re not. It’s a dance. Some days the DJ plays Beyoncé. Some days it’s tax audit blues. Parents on Zoom calls with toddlers crashing in the background? That’s not unprofessional. That’s real. It is not work-life balance. It is work-life blending.
Employment is dead. But work? Work is more alive, electric, creative, and rebellious than ever. And the organisations that get it? They won’t be employers. They’ll be magnets.
So the rallying cry for wanting to be future-ready organisations would read something like this. Replace hierarchy with fluidity. Kill the idea of clocking in. Embrace outputs over hours. Don’t hire people to control them. Hire them to unleash them. Offer meaning. Or offer ping pong tables. But don’t pretend the second is a substitute for the first. Hey organisations, adapt or go obsolete.
The needle has moved. If you cared to notice. You’re not building teams anymore. You’re curating energy. You’re not offering jobs. You’re offering journeys. Work isn’t a place. It’s a vibe. The cubicle is the new coffin. If your employees can’t create, they will quit.
The future of work is so last decade. We are in the age of the task force, NOT work force. Talent doesn’t line up. It drops in. Executes. Vanishes like Batman. The smart organisations are killing time sheets and tracking impact instead. They are ditching office politics for async magic. Letting people work when they are most dangerous( yes, even at 2.27 am). Thy are building cultures of trust, not surveillance software.
The sooner we realise that employment is a 90s rom-com while work today is a Tarantino flick, the better. Employment is a leash. Work is a parachute.
Employment is a fossil. Work is a festival. One’s stiff and regulated. The other’s wild, weird, and wonderfully alive.
So ask yourself: Are we a workplace… or a launchpad? Are we building cubicles… or communities? Do our people work for us… or do they come alive with us?
Choose wisely. The talent isn’t waiting. It’s swiping right on better options. Full-time employee is now Corporate Sanskrit. People aren’t your resources, they’re your investors. Talent invests their creativity, network, reputation, and intellectual capital in your organization, and they expect appropriate returns – financial, developmental, purposeful, and lifestyle.
Good stuff