The Workforce Is About to Change Dramatically

Automation and an oversupply of human labour are narrowing traditional career paths. Meanwhile, new online platforms and tools are demolishing barriers to entry, and allowing individual creators and innovators new routes to customers.

As we enter multiple phases of returning to the workplace, we will see companies roll out an officially flipped workplace model, where employees spend most of their time working on their own at home, but still come into the office for high-stakes, collaborative, or controversial conversations.

A home used to be a place for people to just live. But if it’s a place to live, or work, or be on vacation, then people can work from many homes if they want. Our relationship to our homes is changing.

What if “staying home” became the default option for every knowledge worker? What if home and work—the two poles of American life that have long been in violent opposition—merged to become the sources of both American dynamism and family unit cohesion? And what if, by some unexpected 2020 fluke, Zoom ends up saving the American family?