This week we went to an institution where people do hand weaving. It sounded like this could be a potential future partner since they offer a safe working environment and pay a fair salary. But when we saw the people working there it didn’t feel right. We just couldn’t imagine that doing the same movements for hours and hours every day could be fulfilling. While talking about it afterwards we had to realise that we were judging these people by our own standards. Just because machines could theoretically do their job and we can’t see ourselves doing their work doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t enjoy it. Nevertheless it still didn’t feel right. We realised this was due to the fact that their view of work is not aligned with our values (curiosity, balance and courage), which shape how we do business both within the team and with our partners.
This visit triggered further discussions in our team about both the meaning and the future of work. In 1930 John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the end of the 20th century in countries like the US or Great Britain people would be working about 15 hours a week due (or thanks?) to technology. Clearly, we haven’t reached that point. Elaborating on the reasons why in many jobs we’re still working our solid 40 hours a week despite technology’s huge progress would require quite some research (David Graeber for example has spent quite a bit of time on that). However, we decided that we wouldn’t want to uplift people by supporting out-dated skills as part of our supply chain.
This visit triggered further discussions in our team about both the meaning and the future of work. In 1930 John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the end of the 20th century in countries like the US or Great Britain people would be working about 15 hours a week due (or thanks?) to technology. Clearly, we haven’t reached that point. Elaborating on the reasons why in many jobs we’re still working our solid 40 hours a week despite technology’s huge progress would require quite some research (David Graeber for example has spent quite a bit of time on that). However, we decided that we wouldn’t want to uplift people by supporting out-dated skills as part of our supply chain.
Instead we’ve tried to come up with our own definition of work: “Cover your own and somebody else’s needs at the same time, while not purposefully harming anybody or anything in the process.” The second part of the definition is definitely more of a vision when looking at the outrageous amount of goods that are being produced (and consumed) at other people’s expense. But the first part is already a reality today, right? We are all trying to cover needs with our work. But what kind of needs are we currently covering? And wouldn’t there be other needs that are currently being neglected?
This lead us to think that if we created a working environment that is not only aligned with our values, but also uses todays technology to gain time (for example by using an electronic weaving machine) we could take care of other needs. Which needs these will be and how we’ll be addressing them is yet to be defined, but we’ll definitely keep you in the loop.
This lead us to think that if we created a working environment that is not only aligned with our values, but also uses todays technology to gain time (for example by using an electronic weaving machine) we could take care of other needs. Which needs these will be and how we’ll be addressing them is yet to be defined, but we’ll definitely keep you in the loop.