Workforce of the Future

    The workplace is changing rapidly. Rather than the standard working day of nine to five, employees are working more flexibly to meet their busy home lives. Advances in technology are {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the very nature of the tasks and skills required in the workplace.

    To gain a full perspective of how the workplace is set to change over the next decade, employee benefits provider Unum UK {#blank#}2{#/blank#} with The Future Laboratory to survey 3,000 workers across several industries. They also interviewed industry experts and business leaders on topics from artificial intelligence and robotics to the increase of flexible working and an ageing workforce.

    The result outlines some of the employment changes that businesses can expect to see over the next decade and predicts the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} of two worker cultures which will dominate the workforce. They are the obligated and the self-fulfilled workers.

    “Obligated workers” refer to people with dependents and the sandwich generation, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} raising children with caring for elderly parents. Therefore, they value a career {#blank#}5{#/blank#} to life stages and events and financial security. Joel Defries, 33, father of one kid and partner at London Vodka said, “A flexible employer will allow me to have a long paternity leave (陪产假) and to value my family just as much as I value my job.”

    Self-fulfilled workers are committed to life-long learning and acquiring new skills rather than {#blank#}6{#/blank#} to an employer. They actively look for personal development and want employee benefits that help them {#blank#}7{#/blank#} both their personal and professional ambitions. They treat personal commitments and pursuits as {#blank#}8{#/blank#} to professional commitments. Elly Kemp, 31, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} a full-time employee, now working part-time in a caféand also assisting with her grandmother's care said, “My approach to work allows me the freedom to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} my career at my own pace. I want my work to be fluid so I can change it when I want and do whatever makes me happy at the time.”

    Chen Lei studied art history and the early {#blank#}1{#/blank#} of China in a university. He was able to recognize the {#blank#}2{#/blank#} of different cultural relics from former times, especially the Tang and Song dynasties. One day he was looking in a second-hand furniture shop when he saw an {#blank#}3{#/blank#} object among the many different vases and {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. It was a mirror {#blank#}5{#/blank#} in the Song Dynasty and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} in the {#blank#}7{#/blank#} style of that time. He recognized that it was a {#blank#}8{#/blank#} cultural relic, but at a price he could afford, so he bought it at once. Later he gave it to his local museum. The people there were very happy and without {#blank#}9{#/blank#} consider it one of the treasures of their collection. To them, it was {#blank#}10{#/blank#} much more than Chen Lei paid.

    An {#blank#}1{#/blank#} arson attack on a respected Japanese animation studio left a shocked nation grieving, as investigators looked to identify victims and determine a possible motive in one of the deadliest acts of {#blank#}2{#/blank#} in Japan's modern history.

    A total of 33 people — many of them young — were killed a day earlier when a man {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to douse flammable liquid through the Kyoto Animation Co. studio and set it alight, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} an inferno, officials said. Some 36 others were injured, about 10 critically.

    The blaze at the production house struck at a pillar of Japan's anime industry, an obsession in the country and a cherished cultural {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Kyoto Animation, known as KyoAni, had produced hits such as "Lucky Star," "K-On!" and "Haruhi Suzumiya, " {#blank#}6{#/blank#} worldwide acclaim for its skilled drawings.

    Outside the charred shell of the company's workspace in Kyoto's outskirts on Friday, crowds of well-wishers left flowers and messages of support for the victims. Many bowed, or {#blank#}7{#/blank#} down and prayed as they offered their respects.

    The {#blank#}8{#/blank#}, Shinji Aoba, aged 41, remained in the hospital after {#blank#}9{#/blank#} burns all over his body. A woman who saw police detain the man a day earlier told reporters that he "seemed to be discontented, he seemed to get angry, shouting something about how he had been plagiarized, " according to Reuters.

    Hideaki Hatta, a co-founder and president of Kyoto Animation, said Thursday that the studio had been receiving {#blank#}10{#/blank#}, including emails threatening murder. He said the attack had "broken our hearts."