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TOPIC: work in progress

Work In Progress

Work → In Progress: The Glass Ceiling Is Dead, Long Live The "Glass Wall"

Hit the pause button and rewind to a world grappling with the COVID-19, not that long ago. The world of work, like virtually all aspects of our daily lives, is bearing the brunt of the pandemic, with a particular emphasis on female-dominated sectors of the economy. Millions of women across the globe are forced to put their activity on hold and handle child care duties for instance — at least considerable more than their male counterparts.

Fast forward a bit, to 2021: The economy is starting back up, but more than a million women are still unemployed. Some economists feared the pandemic might even wipe out a generation of progress for working women.

Back to the present day, women are coming back to the workforce in record numbers. According to Insider, 77.8% of women between the ages of 25 and 54 are in the labor force, surpassing the previous peak in 2000.

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Work → In Progress: AI, The Pros And Cons Of Your New Sort-Of Colleague

Will it help you, control you ... or replace you?

It seems like Artificial Intelligence is all we read about these days, with some newspapers even suggesting its rapid expansion poses “existential threats to humanity.” But even if we do have a lot of questions about AI, it also opens up opportunities to help human activity for the better – in particular in the world of work.

We’re hearing more about “future-proof careers,” which will survive the advent of AI. A recent report from consulting firm Challenger, Grey and Christmas found that AI was behind nearly 4,000 layoffs in the U.S. last month. That’s almost four times the impact of outsourcing – although cost-cutting still accounted for double the job losses.

Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 brings positive news about jobs created by AI and technological advances in the next five years. There’s some nuance around this new tool – which, like any revolutionary invention, will have a lasting impact on many industries.

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Work → In Progress: Time To Change Everything Or Back To Business As Usual?

The world of work is at a crossroads. A new French study published last week shows that in the span of four years, jobs offering remote work have increased tenfold since 2017, as the world grapples with the long-term impact of COVID-19. The profound questioning of the necessity to “go to the office” that the pandemic posed led to teleworking becoming a “new normal” of sorts, with the majority of businesses implementing hybrid models that allow employees to work remotely while still having access to the necessary resources they need to do their jobs ...

… that is, until it was "back to business as usual." But returning to office-based work, as most parts of the world consider the coronavirus crisis more or less a thing of the past, it is becoming apparent to some that things would, and should, never be the same.

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Work → In Progress: The Ripples Of Ukraine War On The World Of Work

Jobs for Ukrainian refugees, too busy to quit in Hong Kong, the rise of 'asynchronous' work....and more

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the working world — still recovering from the global pandemic, no less — was dealt a sizeable blow, from ripple effects of unemployment to supply chain disruptions to office campaigns to support the victims of the war.

Of course, the most immediate impact of the war is inside Ukraine itself, which UN News estimates has lost 4.8 million jobs. The immediate impact has also been felt across the global economy, as energy embargoes and grain blockades have undermined the most basic elements of life. Meanwhile, the influx of refugees has put newfound pressure on labor markets in certain countries.

But as the war unfolds before us on our screens, business in Western countries have also felt compelled to get involved, often with spontaneous initiatives to offer help. In the UK, for example, several companies have put pressure on the government to make it easier on refugees, and have offered jobs themselves to Ukrainian refugees. Some are going even further by offering relocation and other assistance.

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Economy
Rozena Crossman

Work In Progress: TikTok Hiring, CV Hacking, Pawternity Leave

PARIS — We've seen the employee of the future … and she's pale, red-eyed and hunchbacked. A recent article and a spooky life-size doll named Emma showing what can happen to the human body after working in front of a screen for 25 years, published in the French outlet We Demain, was meant to shock. And it does, on a pure health-related level for anyone working a desk job these days. But it's also a particularly good reminder of employee needs for those whose job it is to recruit and retain the best talent in our digital era.

This edition of Work → In Progress dives into the realm of human resources, looking around the world for ways that technology and other factors are driving the way we find the right job — and right job seeker. We'll visit a German hospital using TikTok to garner new recruits, would-be new hires hacking their way to outwit HR bots, not to mention a cuddly selection of companies worldwide implementing "furturnity leave" policies ...​​​

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