Working Assumptions: What We Thought We Knew About Work Before Covid and Generative AI And What We Know Now

Award-winning British writer, futurist of work, columnist for Bloombergs Work Shift, and the popular podcaster about the past, present and future of work Julia Hobsbawm, heralds The Amazing Age in her new book.

With a Preface by Lynda Gratton

A rapid-response book to the seismic changes affecting working life, Working Assumptions extends Julias work which has made her a leading commentator around the world. Her landmark 2022 book The Nowhere Office, which was an immediate category bestseller on Amazon, presciently predicted the rise in hybrid working long before anyone else; it developed into her successful podcast of the same name now in its fifth series.

Working Assumptions explores the speed and scale of the impact of Covid-19 and the eruption of Chat GPT on the workplace, working attitudes and norms, to take a clear-eyed view of what Julia identifies as The Amazing Age a new era replete with challenge and opportunity for working people at a pace not seen in over a century. The book will provide fresh analysis and data on six essential areas: jobs and skills, commuting and office life, culture, wellbeing, leadership and generational shifts. In addition to drawing together Julias columns to date for Bloomberg Work Shift, which she has been writing fortnightly since September 2022, it will include a preface from Lynda Gratton (author of The 100-Year Life) and guest contribution from leading figures.

The book features insight from exclusive interviews Julia has undertaken, with key thought-leaders including: technology futurist Azeem Azhar; Professor Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University; generations experts Chloe Combi and Dr Eliza Filby; Professor Arpit Gupta of NYU Stern School of Business; Arianna Huffington of Thrive Global; Peter Miscovich, Global Future of Work Lead, JLL; and, the view from those working across the collars ie the white and blue collars alike.

Human and machine will come together in the illustrations, as the award-winning graphic novelist and comics illustrator Nicola Streeten and AI illustration tool, Microsoft Bings DALL-E, provide a series of line drawings used throughout.