Predictions about the Future of Work and of Relationships

What will work and relationships be like in 2030? Here are my thoughts.

Work

Remote work will dominate. Employees will increasingly value the freedom of working at home: no need to get dressed up, find child (and doggie) care, endure a stressful commute, and sit in a noisy cubicle. Employers will welcome the cost-saving of not having to provide office space and realize that productivity may, net, be as good at home.

For employees whose homes are ill-suited to working, there may be pod centers, where workers can work in their own one-room pod with a common area for socializing and for sharing expensive technology, such as high-powered computers.

Unionization will increase. Unionization will expand into the professions: Doctors, lawyers, professors, etc will increasingly be unionized. Only top performers will opt out, wanting the prestige of being paid on their individual merits.

Automation will extend to jobs requiring judgment. The case for automation will be bolstered by employees ever more disdaining employers, and increased payroll costs, e.g., the result of unionization and of fully employer-paid health care, mandated by government. Advances in artificial intelligence will result in AI-assisted doctors, lawyers, even corporate, non-profit, and government managers. Another example is the counseling app. The cost and inconvenience of in-person counseling has already seen remote counseling grow. As machine learning advances, counseling apps will improve and become a viable alternative to counseling by a person, especially for people who live in countries where counseling is scarce but internet access is readily available, not just in the U.S. but, for example, in India and China.

New careers. These jump to mind:

Air-shuttle pilot. The solution to government antipathy to road building in favor of mass transit will result in developing low-flying, silent, electric powered air shuttles. That will create many new “lanes” at little cost, which will be used by commuters and commercial delivery.

Nuclear vehicle developer and service technician. By 2030, a first generation of micro-nukes, small enough to power those air-shuttles as well as buses, trucks, and trains could be in trials. The government and much of the public dislike fossil fuel and so are attracted to nuclear power being a source of unlimited clean energy. Those factors will encourage public-and private-sector funding to develop micro-nuclear-powered engines with an acceptable safety profile and process for waste disposal. Of course, engineers and other scientists will be needed to develop nuclear-powered vehicles and when in service, nuclear vehicle service techs.

Genomic surgeon. The genome will be better understood, with gene repair available to humans, animals and plants. For example, a gene cluster could be replaced so crops such as tomatoes, peaches, and corn no longer need regular spraying with pesticides and fungicides. Progress will likely have been made toward replacing gene clusters that predispose a person to physical or mental diseases, from cancer to depression.

Relationships

More multi-generational households. Economic pressures and the lack of affordable assisted-living facilities will cause an increase in aging parents living with their children. This will add stress to their lives and create opportunities for counselor-types to work with such families.

Bailiwick equality. Many men resist increasing their domestic responsibilities while many women resist income-earning responsibility. So instead of continued pressure for each partner to contribute 50 percent in both areas, more couples will assess fairness by whether each partner contributes en toto equally to the relationship, each party choosing how much to contribute to each bailiwick.

Bed death increases. Causes include increased enmity between the sexes in straight relationships, and an increase in LGBTs, resulting in more so-called “lesbian bed death.” Attempts to improve people’s sex life may include decreased insistence on monogamy and increased use of sex-enhancing drugs.

Of course, all predictions, especially those for years ahead are risky. It’s said the people who live by the crystal ball eat broken glass. Do you think I will?

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