One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDG 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth) is to ‘Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all’.
In the context of Future of Us, this sustainability goal applies to mid-career professionals.
Covid-19 has put an urgency to such efforts. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects a global recession as bad as or worse than what happened in 2009. As job losses escalate, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that nearly half of the global workforce is at risk of losing their livelihoods.
This would include many mid-career professionals, who are already battling challenges such as ageism and digital skills divide at the workplaces. We need a peer-powered community to battle these challenges together.
What can Future of Us offer to our community?
An empathetic, resourceful, and value-adding peer-powered community:
a. Community for advocacy: We create new research and thought leadership contents to put the focus on ageism and as well as help in shifting the mindset that future-ready and truly diverse workplaces must embrace. We engage key stakeholders including governments and employers with such evidence and hold up positive examples to move the needle.
b. Community for opportunities: The mid-career professionals would need access to conventional and emerging monetary opportunities, such as gigs, remote projects in diverse geographies, etc. Future of Us can be a platform to
connect such opportunities with a highly curated list of FutUs members with specific skillsets. It can leverage technologies such as blockchain to engender trust across geographies.
c. Community for inspiration and mental wellness: Mental wellness is a challenge that the world currently faces. To quote Yuval Noah Harari , “More people commit suicide today than are killed in war”. With incessant changes brought about by technological shifts and pandemics, mental wellness can be an unique value-add, where our peer-powered network can partner wisely to add unique values.
This wouldn’t happen all by itself. As a volunteer peer-powered community, we all must collaborate and help each other to make it possible for each one of us.
2 thoughts on “Why a Future of Us movement?”
Welcome to the Future of Us! You’re part of a movement to define our future. Please do invite those who you feel should be part of it, anywhere around the world.
Some of our discussions here would be philosophical. Think artificial intelligence/machine learning, think whether it should be developed to work with and augment humans, or should it be designed to replace humans? We love technology and wish to be involved in how the future would shape.
But most of it would be creating practical tools to help us get past the difficult phase in our careers when it appears there are few choices left. What happens when a pink slip lands in our hands? What are the pressing things we must take care of? Are we the only ones facing such a rejection? Who else has survived it?
What about those still in a job but have ‘mentally resigned’? How to get ourselves out of the ‘worker’s block’?
Now that you’re part of this movement, please start by making your point!
No commercials or promotions here please. This must be about us. It must build up as a conversation…
As industry 4.0 progresses, many of us approaching 40s and 50s are asking, what is next for us? It is worst for those of us facing retrenchment or displacement.
100-110 years is the fastest growing demographic segment in developed countries. Can we still retire in our 50s and wait for next 50s?
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