moving to the new normal: a new purpose for work and careers

The COVID_19 pandemic has given millions around the globe an unforeseen chance to pause and reflect on their lives. Many had already been feeling the quiet stirring of discontent with their lives - a feeling which has been heightened as millions already in work experience furloughing and redundancy as the UK pauses and values rebalance from "me" to "we". At the same time, a complete generation of young people are left worried and confused about their futures. So what's the solution?

Career Alchemy Founder and Lead Coach, Carolyn Parry was a recent guest on The New Normal, a podcast run by Chris Webb and Helen Armitage of Sheffield Hallam University.

In the podcast, Carolyn talks about the way the world of work is necessarily changing, how society at large has been able to reconnect with what really matters to us and led us to appreciate how little we actually need to be happy. She talks about the shift in business values away from the intense spotlight on profit for shareholders towards a more balanced focus on solving the wicked problems the world faces and developing staff regardless of background, the new ways of working and how this creates a change to level up across the regions of the UK, how Coronavirus is speeding up trends towards automation, how retail is changing, and new opportunities within the gig economy, 

She highlights the democratisation of learning and how we should all be life long learners so we can protect our futures, how we will continue to see greater virtual collaboration and less competition across organisations: as we work together to solve common problems using new tools for distributed working which leads to the question of education and how it needs to repurpose itself to ensure our young people are able to find a clear why to help them create fulfilling and sustainable futures.

You can listen to the podcast here: