New Work ≠ Ego Work

• August 31, 2022
• centerroomteam
• no comments

Heike Bauer is an independent consultant and mentor and accompanies companies into the working world of the future. As a trainer, she offers supervision for New Work, people and culture. In her guest article, Heike explains how New Work has become a buzzword and yet not all is lost.

"New Work" was intended as a synonym for the question of how we want to work in the future in order to achieve satisfaction within a fairer economy and to dissolve the current wage system, which supports and promotes power and thus creates a division that is neither good for people nor the environment. The implementation of New Work should serve a higher purpose to support positive social change.

Frithjof Bergmann's New Work in its origins: "The poverty of desire prevents us from pursuing work that we really, really want."

He meant that we prefer to pursue work that is determined by others, which does not make us happy but often even makes us ill, for the wrong reasons, rather than having the courage to change something about it.

This is what it has become today:

• "Looking for a large apartment in the city to have creative freedom for working from home. Hashtag: New Work"
• "Range of services: New Work etiquette course"
• "New Work groups for career-oriented managers"
• Companies waste the time of applicants because the profile they advertise probably corresponds to the new wishful thinking, but the goals of the company management are not compatible with it.

I have come across the completely absurd examples listed above in recent weeks.
My conclusion: the meaning and purpose of sustainable working is currently disappearing into the New Work buzzword bubble and apparently only a few people are still trying to clarify the situation.

The movement sometimes disappears resignedly into its own bubble or adapts to the mainstream and all its - sometimes paradoxical - variations. Unfortunately, this is also reminiscent of the saying: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

We finally need more courage.

We need to call a spade a spade, even within companies and against self-interest. It is not a question of assigning "right" or "wrong", but it is now important to counter the drift towards a watered-down conformity that is slowing down the urgently needed cultural change. Frithjof Bergmann called it "New Work in a miniskirt" a few years ago and would probably have better words for this paradox now. I call it "New Work Washing" - you may excuse my lack of creativity.

Aren't you annoyed if your idea is now being watered down by capitalism?

Bergmann: I'm not just a little annoyed, I'm very, very annoyed. I've almost coined a catchphrase for it: paid work in a miniskirt. For many people, New Work is something that makes work a little more appealing. And that's absolutely not enough. But on the other hand, there are many people today who are involved in New Work and I am not an immodest person either. I like the fact that New Work has now become well known - even if it is very far removed from what I had in mind.(Haufe/Personalmagazin 2018)

I can't help but feel angry when I see so many examples of warnings not being taken seriously. Due to the immensely increasing shortage of skilled workers, employees are often lured in with promises that cannot even begin to be kept. Despite new names in tenders, internal adjustments and the introduction of agile methods, no new corporate culture, let alone a new mindset, is automatically achieved for every employee.

A concept of New Work - even in its adapted form - must at least contain the basic pillars; a truly new attitude towards self-fulfilling and meaningful collaboration using all modern, digital and technical developments. This requires a confrontation with the previous structures, with oneself, and accordingly requires patience and time. What is currently happening is merely the use of New Work as a marketing claim and process optimization - incoherently linked by hashtags and keywords. We can still expect "New Work Food" and the "New Work Boutique", which will also make us look appealing in the home office, with the new "Onepiece Homeoffice" collection.

Guided by wrong intentions

No, it's not actually funny at all, because it's going in exactly the opposite direction. The further attempts to make the system, which aims to set an example with a social mission and to support genuine disruptive innovation, degenerate into self-initiation by supporters and opponents. I don't want to blame either the marketing managers or the HR developers for this, because one thing hasn't changed: "the fish still stinks from the head."

This is also addressed to a number of further education institutes, where the theoretical approaches of hybrid working, the New Work trust mindset and learning in communities and diversity are often taught without their own structures having any of these characteristics.

Decision-makers will fail in this transformation if they focus on using the positive changes with the wrong intentions and thus devalue them. We will only get a real chance in an unequal race with global markets through cooperation and collaboration.

But there is another way. Some carry these ideas, which Bergmann left us, into the companies and their development, taking into account all the necessary organizational and business management criteria.

What needs to change

If we want to achieve real cultural change that goes far beyond looking at paid work, we must first and foremost begin to be clear about what we want from life and who should support us in this. The basic idea of fairness and creating meaning for all can only work in both directions.

It is not my intention to point out only negative examples. There are certainly impulses that have been received, understood and implemented in the long term. And there are inspiring people who, as pioneers, sometimes had to go the hard way first in order to tell us how they were able to accompany their company, including employees, into a successful cultural and organizational change. Or initiatives that are on the move and also talk about practical implementation, with presentations linked to their own experiences and New Work enthusiasts - including myself - who, despite many adversities, remain on the path and hold on to the idea that in the end it is not a full bank account or a fleet of vehicles that makes us happy, but a fulfilling and meaningful life. That's why we need to dissolve the separation between work life and leisure time. But where is this boundary? The inappropriateness of this separation is evident, for example, in the term "voluntary work". If a separation were to be made here, it would not be free time (Frei-zeit) and would therefore displace the actual fulfilment of charitable and unpaid work as a basic motivation or not recognize the commitment as work.

The purpose of the community - without wanting to delve too deeply into Marxism here - is a clear component of the new way of thinking that is anchored in New Work. Although the approach of socialist transformation of an existing class society is reminiscent of the dissolution of hierarchies in companies, there are some principles that I support. After all, guaranteeing the psychological security we need to express our opinions without fear, and through which we can only then really find ourselves on an equal footing, will be rather difficult in companies that declare career as advancement.

"A career no longer means moving up, but gaining value for the company."
From a career from the French "carrière", to a career of value.

I will now return to the questionable statements at the beginning. What all the examples listed have in common is that they are all about personal benefits and not about meaningfulness, which, as we know, is the underlying idea behind New Work. For example, setting up a home office in order to escape the corporate world is contradictory. Or to fill etiquette courses with trendy vocabulary without any content is tantamount to implying that the whole of society has thrown all rules of etiquette overboard in two years and is waiting in front of the monitor, drooling in jogging bottoms, to be taught manners again.

"New Work is the answer to a new age in which innovation is created through knowledge transfer in networks and communities." (Heike Bauer)

While Bergmann philosophized about "the work you really, really want" (because he had done his doctorate on Hegel), he was also concerned with developing this with the community - i.e. in New Work centers and in companies. And so it doesn't take any special skills to recognize a similar mission in a coworking space: If your city apartment is too small, you could rent the nearest space by the hour or day and, if you've lost it, you'll certainly find your way back to good manners there.

Long story short: I hope that the career community and each and every one of us will be more courageous.

The courage to communicate honestly and admit weaknesses. And to show that you don't do everything perfectly. Regardless of whether it has anything to do with New Work or not.

Happy New Work!

Heike Bauer