Finnish working life has changed at an unprecedented pace in recent years\u2014both in terms of legislation, the economy, and working methods. These changes have sparked partly heated debate, with viewpoints tending to polarize for or against. <\/p>\n\n
However, there are also difficult-to-challenge facts in the background, such as Finland’s prolonged lack of economic growth, the need to increase investments, and our poor international competitiveness. There is also broad understanding of the challenges posed by high labor costs and the need to increase flexibility in how work is performed. <\/p>\n\n
A chapter of its own is Finland’s persistently record-high unemployment, which is a daily burden for far too many and simultaneously a major macroeconomic problem. This is not only about youth and aging workers’ employment or, for example, the construction industry downturn. Even an increasing number of highly educated individuals and those who have already held leadership positions are finding it difficult to secure employment. <\/p>\n\n
Recruitment processes have become more complex and lengthier than before. Job searching in general has become increasingly burdensome, and competition for the few available positions has intensified, with a single role potentially attracting hundreds of applicants. At the same time, part-time positions and temporary contracts have become more common. <\/p>\n\n
It has become evident that the traditional rigid and expensive employment relationship is no longer the only\u2014nor often the best\u2014way to obtain the right expertise for the right need at the right time. Flexible and agile solutions for work as a service are becoming more widespread in Finland as well. <\/p>\n\n
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid work has become established as a typical operating model in professional services firms. This, in turn, has transformed leadership, work communities, employee well-being, and, above all, office culture. <\/p>\n\n
Attitudes toward changes in working methods are divided: some consider remote work more efficient and better suited to daily life, while many fear the deterioration of community, innovation, and onboarding.<\/p>\n\n
Many workplaces have recently increased requirements for office presence, which has caused friction between employees and management. Those accustomed to remote work easily perceive working from home as a gained benefit they are not willing to relinquish. <\/p>\n\n
Working methods will certainly evolve over time, shaped by the needs of work communities and changes in the operating environment. A single way of working that suits all organizations is unlikely to emerge. <\/p>\n\n
The rapid penetration of generative AI into the daily lives of individuals and organizations raises ongoing questions about which professional tasks will be automated, how work content will change, and what skills employees will need in the future.<\/p>\n\n
The general understanding is likely that professional and office work in particular are exposed to the effects of AI. In Finland, there is particular discussion about how AI could increase work productivity\u2014rather than jobs disappearing entirely. <\/p>\n\n
However, AI, or more precisely machine learning, is advancing so rapidly and the AI boom is so heated that its longer-term effects on working life remain shrouded in early uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n
The pace of change in working life has in itself increased work strain, burnout, and mental health issues, including in professional work and leadership roles. Organizations and supervisors are now required to develop new capabilities and activities to address and prevent these problems. <\/p>\n\n
At the same time, the younger generation emphasizes work-life balance, the meaningfulness of tasks, flexibility, and the opportunity to change fields from time to time more than before. For them, work is no longer as central to identity as it was for previous generations, which is also reflected in discussions about “quiet quitting” and changes in workplace values. <\/p>\n\n
This generational shift presents challenges for companies in retaining key personnel through traditional retention methods alone.<\/p>\n\n
Finnish working life is transitioning from a stable model strongly rooted in collective agreements toward a more flexible but also more uncertain model. This is precisely what fuels the current debate and, in part, societal controversy about the future of working life. <\/p>\n\n
What about the question posed in the title? An easy and clich\u00e9d answer would be to note that only change is permanent. As the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus<\/strong> described the nature of life with his aphorism “everything flows”\u2014you cannot step into the same river twice. <\/p>\n\n However, I believe that certain internationally observed trends in working life will gain increasing ground in Finland in the coming years. In professional organizations, these include at least the meaningfulness of work advocated by younger generations, more frequently changing roles and new types of skill requirements, and the “gig economy” in general\u2014now also in leadership positions. <\/p>\n\n The current of change is driven forward by ever-faster-paced markets and companies’ constant need to survive and succeed in prevailing conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Finnish working life has changed at an unprecedented pace in recent years\u2014both in terms of legislation, the economy, and working methods. These changes have sparked partly heated debate, with viewpoints tending to polarize for or against. However, there are also difficult-to-challenge facts in the background, such as Finland’s prolonged lack of economic growth, the need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[50,46,44,45,49,47,48],"class_list":["post-8728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-2","tag-changes-in-working-methods","tag-difficulty-in-recruitment","tag-gig-economy","tag-heraclitus","tag-meaningfulness-of-work","tag-megatrends-in-working-life","tag-transformation-of-working-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8730,"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions\/8730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherry.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}