Work 2.0 is a book by Bill Jensen. I have not read the book, the title came to my mind when I was thinking about the future of work, or better the definition of work and not-work. Isn’t it time  that we seriously start to think about changing the way we work and how we define work. I mean not only the physical way of it, that’s easy (ok for me, it’s my bread and butter…), no what I mean is that work could be as in Bob Black‘s words “a new way of life based on play.”

Damn, I like that idea. Read that last sentence again: “A new way of life based on play.” That sounds awfully exiting! 

A few years ago we designed an office and we added a few shacks (pictures were taken during construction) on artificial turf in the space. My vision was that these shacks could be used like children use the spaces they create. I was referring to those self-made clubhouses when we were young. Remember? During summer these huts made out of scrap wood where you would play for days, slept in, keep your treasures, read books, told jokes, played board games, maybe even had your first kiss… Play involves fantasy, imagination, and taking on spontaneous roles. Play creates a very powerful way of getting things done, play gets you in a state of flow, a state where you forget about time or anything else (until your mum shouts from the window to come and eat). In Black’s excellent article, he refers briefly to Huizinga’s book Homo Ludens published in 1937. Huizinga, a Dutch historian, who made an extensive study on the concept and importance of play. Huizinga writes: “Play is older than culture…[as] animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing. Play” Huizinga goes on “Transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action”.  Is is the intensity, a sometimes maddening absorbing power that is according to Huizinga, the essence of play. 

So why can’t work be more like play? According to Black the main problem is that a lot of work that is being done today is “nothing but useless paper-shuffling.” The fact that the tertiary sector of service work is growing while the first (agriculture) and secondary sector (industry) is declining is proof according to Black that work is becoming less and less necessary. It is a contradiction that despite all the automation we work more than ever before. Black mentions a study by Paul and Percival Goodman who estimated that just 5% of the work being done would satisfy our minimal needs for food, clothing and shelter. 

The question of work 2.0 for me is whether can we turn work into play? Black’s answer is that we first of all should discard the notion of a “job” and “an occupation”. If we forget about jobs then we can let people do things they actually like doing. Secondly there should be time limits to doing these tasks, a person might enjoy cooking, but the joy will disappear if it becomes toiling in a kitchen for 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Thirdly people should be able to have variety in what they do, or in Black’s words: “anything goes”. Just like in play, there should not be any need for “progress” in work. Huizinga saw in play the basis of who we are, Black in this sense wants to go back to this state of mind. 

Can we play at work? I have my reservations about the examples that I am about to introduce, as some of them are only partly play, but at least these are not your standard-nine-to-five-work. The first and most well-known example of is of course Google, where employees can spend 20% of their time on their own projects. This extra “play-time” has let to the creation of Gmail, Google News and Google Finance. Projects that were created by Google staff out of their own initiative and time they could use as they wish. Another example might be the informal gathering in cafe’s where people from various fields come together to physically meet, discuss and work on collaborative projects. The idea behind this is that although IT made it possible of being able to work and collaborate anywhere, anytime, working together, talking in a physical environment seems be an as natural need as play.