Destruction Precedes Creation: Opportunities in an Emerging Working World

The working world is changing at a phenomenal rate. Ten years from now, it could be unrecognisable.

Permanent, pensionable jobs are disappearing. AI is taking over office-based professions. Admin, legal drafting, policy writing, even parts of medicine and finance can now be done in seconds.

And people are realising that the endless pursuit of title, status, and salary has not delivered the joy they were promised. They’re white knuckling their way through life behind a fortress of “success” that feels more like a trap than freedom.

The cracks in the system are no longer subtle - they’re structural. But with a new economic era emerging, we have a unique opportunity to redefine the value of work.

Destruction precedes creation.

The same forces that are destabilising the old world of work could be the very thing that allows us to rebuild a new one - that is liveable, and enjoyable for us all.

💣 So do we keep fighting a system that is hurting us? Or do we step outside the crumbling fortress - and build something better?

Because while AI can replace spreadsheets, it can’t replace genuine care and presence.

🤖 It can’t bring life into this world. It can’t administer life-saving medication or offer comfort at the bedside of the dying. It can’t hold space for trauma, witness grief, or teach a child essential life skills.

And in a world that’s more “connected” but more isolated than ever, the kind of work we’ve historically undervalued - caregiving, teaching, social work, mental health support - is becoming impossible to ignore. The value of work not easily measured in KPIs has the potential to come to the fore.

🌱 A Rare and Radical Opening

We are being given a chance - right now - to reimagine how we define, measure, and reward work. Not just to close pay disparities, but to disrupt the whole damn system that created it. This requires us to go deeper than gender-based binaries or surface-level reforms. It’s not just about getting more women into boardrooms. It’s about rebuilding the infrastructure completely.

What could ethical, equitable work look like in a fast-moving world? We must shift from:

🕰️ Clocking hours to rewarding social impact and integrity. 🎭 Performance and perfection to purposeful contribution. 🛑 Gatekeeping and hierarchy to decentralised power and empowered community leadership. 🤐 Self-censorship to unfiltered truth-telling and collective visioning. 🔥 Burnout and extraction to restoration, reciprocity, and care.

Because ethical work isn’t just about doing less harm. It’s about disrupting with integrity, purpose, and visionary thinking - structurally, relationally, and personally. That honours unseen emotional labour, lived experience, relational intelligence. It values Indigenous, intergenerational, and ancestral wisdom, not just fast-paced innovation. And it makes rest, joy, and nourishment the norm - not a reward for burnout.

 ⚠️ But if we’re not careful...

The old system will rebuild itself. With new titles, suits, and shoes, but the same power structures. We must be vigilant. This isn’t about tweaking the rules of the game. It’s about alchemising the old and creating something better - together.

 💬 What do you believe needs to change to ensure the emerging working world is liveable – and enjoyable - for us all?

Email me. I’d love to hear your hopes, fears, and vision for the future.