Part 4

Welcome to Human Work. A series about the changing nature of work today.

 

Firestarters, catalysts, creatives, glue, sparks, savants. Some people can see things, do things that others can’t. They make ripples that become waves – even sea changes. An emerging question about modern work is: how do we get more out of these people?

 

The problem

 

Once upon a time, firestarters’ presence in the office meant wider benefits for the organisation at large in terms of productivity, speed, agility, ideas and innovation. But many of these people are now in the office much less frequently.

New ways of working have presented themselves and this has enabled many creatives to withdraw from the pressures of proximity. It was, after all, what many of them would have opted for all along. For this set, accelerated work transformation during and since the pandemic has (generally) been manna from heaven.

 

Food for creative thought

 

This quiet withdrawal (not quitting) is hard to pin down, but will be recognised by many managers and leaders as part of the business ‘energy shortage’ discussed here. How companies can claw back some of this discretionary creative energy will be a HR, leadership and workforce topic for the next decade. Here are some ideas for thought and discussion (not a list of solutions):

 

• Managers and leaders: let workers know that ‘phoning it in’ isn’t good enough. Make sure they know that you know they can do and give more. Have those conversations now, even if people don’t like them.

 

• Explore incentives, reward and performance targets that measure creative contributions and the positive and productive effect certain individuals have on other individuals and groups. If we are getting better at measuring success and performance (I’m not sure we are, actually… but that’s for another time!) then perhaps it’s time to reward people for some of the things the organisation used to get for free, galling though it may be.

 

• Revisit strategy. Is a slump in discretionary energy spend down to a lack of clarity on overall strategy? With industry norms and practices shifting so fast, that would be understandable. It’s worth checking that it’s definitely them (the energy misers) – not you!

 

• Accept that whatever you do, some people will prefer different ways of working to you. You won’t just be able to talk it out. Look, or begin to think about, changes to wording in terms and employment contracts to help the organisation win back some of the initiative it lost during and after the pandemic.

 

We all became transactional

 

 

Companies can mandate that people return to the office but they cannot mandate that they spend a certain amount of their discretionary energy on work. They must instead encourage and convince. Some of the less obvious reasons for this are engrained in our work and social history.

The current generations of workers that came up through the 80s, 90s and noughties were told to look after themselves – no job for life, no final salary pension, respect (even venerate) the market, plan your next move. Basically, look after number one. These became tenets of our working world. So, when a leader or manager says they want more creative energy from their people ex gratia, they should not be surprised if the answer is some form of “show me the money”.

If the members of the next and emerging generations want and need to change this, they will have to remake the world. (Which, of course, they will have to do anyway.)

As an aside, work seems to be slipping out of individual control more each day. A study from Cardiff University (and others) in 2024 entitled What is Happening to Participation at Work? found that, while some 62 per cent of people reported high levels of discretion in how they did their work in 1992, that proportion declined steadily to around 34% in 2024. We can speculate several reasons for this but it’s hard to see how such a trend would motivate you to give more at work.

 

The energy refund

 

For those making high-value creative contributions in a remote or hybrid setup, the new world of work is far from a bad deal. There’s the reduction of hours per week spent on energy-sapping commutes, and fewer hours spent in meetings where nothing constructive is achieved. These people are the recipients of an energy refund, an energy bonus, and many of them have their own hobbies, families, side hustles, projects and interests on which to spend them.

Which brings us back to the conundrum for the organisation – how to get more energy and focus from some of your best people. It’s hard. Advances in worktech and the way the pandemic blasted it through our lives have reminded us that while the need for ‘human resources’ to run businesses remains, the topic of work is far wider and richer than business needs.

Work has changed and reinvented itself over eons and eras. It will do so again.

 

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Further reading: Harvard Business Review, May 2025.  The Workplace Psychological Contract Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It.