The alarm beeped high.
His watch reminded him to ‘wake up’.
‘Alexa’, play ‘Morning motivation’” he yelled.
Dressed-up and locked home with his fingerprint.
The self-driving car took him to his office.
It was another Monday.

Many of us could relate to this. Our daily lives including our work have been significantly altered by the application of the latest technologies including Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, predictive analytics, etc. The culmination of such changes is often referred to as the outcome of the disruptive nature of Industry 4.0 or the fourth Industrial Revolution. As we see a slow transformation in the way we interact, these disruptive forces are changing the way we work as well. From hiring to termination, we reinvented new ways to streamline processes. Workspaces are becoming more virtual, geographically agnostic, and work became more flexible.

Where is ‘Work’ Today?
In this constant tech-enabled evolution of work, contingent workers are often mistreated, abused and often suffer from frauds. On the other side, the employer often struggles with contract breaches, lack of guarantee of the delivery, and mainly, spends an extensive amount of time and resources to plan and process legal contracts.

According to ILO’s World Employment Social Outlook Report 2019, over 3.3million employed globally in 2018 experienced a lack of material well-being, economic security, equal opportunities or scope for human development. That means the majority of the workforce being employed faces multiple difficulties to be a part of the system. In 2018 itself, there were over 140 million people who were classified as “potential labour force” in a world constantly struggling with an increasing skill shortage. This imbalance is exactly why we need a total revamp of the system.

As the number of people unemployed is projected to increase by 1 million per year, we can’t be oblivious of the issues faced by the employed people around the world. There is no consensus about the number of hours one is expected to work, where to work or when to work. Over 94% of the working community works more than 50 hours per week and nearly half said they worked more than 65 hours per week in a Harvard Business School survey. Since the employers bear a huge cost to hire someone, they expect us to be the nine-to-fivers. We can’t blame them, this process came into existence as the bleak aftermath of the big recession. Fewer workers, more hours with the fixed cost of employment not just jeopardise our social lives — our mental and physical health is at risk too.

Current ‘Work’ and Productivity

Remember when in 2019, Microsoft Japan closed its offices every Friday in August and found that employee productivity increased by almost 40% compared with August 2018. Additionally, this mere reduction of one day also helped to conserve electricity and office resources, while declining the employee stress levels up to 7%. It is well known to us that reducing the standard working schedule could bring a range of economic, social and environmental benefits too.

What we are looking at, is a booming generation of millennial, Gen Z and Gen Alpha workers, who expect more meaningful and autonomy from work. They expect smart, intuitive and powerful technologies to back their work while demanding high regards to security and privacy. But can we make it possible?

What is New Work?

What we have seen is a need for a structural change in the field of work. A work format that enables a culture that strengthens human values.

The concept of “New Work” was developed by philosopher and social catalyst Frithjof Bergmann in the 70s as an alternative working model to capitalism. According to him the purpose of New Work is to ‘Reduce the oppressive, dementing power of work- to use machines to do the work that is boring and repetitive. Then enable humans to do the creative, imaginative, uplifting work.’

This approach focuses on freedom, community and independence. A way to do more meaningful work that we truly believe in.

What is New Work City?

We have designed a smart collaboration platform powered by blockchain technology and AI to metamorphose the current ‘work’. New Work City is one of a kind global community of creators, a group of NGOs, and companies. We built the most decentralised network for people to collaborate on projects seamlessly. Since New Work City’s backbone is embedded with the modern distributed ledger technology and AI, our platform is transparent and trustworthy.

How will New Work City bring change?

While we are breaking bigger projects into doable tasks and assigning them to highly skilled people around the world. We are enabling an environment in which each one of us can potentially earn based on our skills, whether it is small or big. From photography to voice-over you name it, we have got you covered. In much of the popular culture, we have learnt the capabilities and potential of emerging technologies. Here, we are leveraging this learning to implement and offer a secure and unique platform. We are not only becoming an enabler but also a catalyst and a link to establish a New Work mission.

Through New Work City, we are building and developing a novel work format that focuses on the below-mentioned aspects:

Social Learning: Interact, discuss, collaborate and acquire new skills while completing challenging tasks

Flexibility:Sign up for the work fitting your schedule and get easily adapt to a new work culture that allows you to work at any time and from anywhere

Shared purpose: Become a part of a project or a cause you believe; help them succeed, and become a part of the team

Remote working: Balance life and work, or merge them through the new digital workplace platform

While we build our community, we cannot stress more, how we intend to commit to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals No.8 agenda to attain the target of “full and productive employment and decent work for all and equal pay for equal value by 2030”. Through our platform, we ensure that everyone, regardless of their gender, race, nationality and physical abilities will receive equal opportunity without any discrimination.

We don’t intend to ‘robotize’ the current work; but, re-innovate it to make it more humane. We aim for you to have a better social, physical and mental health without compromising your work.

Work has been democratized many times over. We believe this might very well be the last time. To us, the future is now, and we want you to be a part of it.

Connect with us at team@nwc.io