Last Updated on: 25th February 2025, 12:59 pm
- 92% believe governments are failing to address changes in work
- 46% feel political and geopolitical issues are now more prevalent in the workplace
A major global report is set to be published on 10th March, marking five years since the world first went into lockdown. The report calls for the establishment of a new international body, The World Work Organisation.
Titled The United State of Work, the report is edited by Julia Hobsbawm, Founder and CEO of the work trends network Workathon. It brings together essays and analysis from leading experts in future-of-work trends, alongside fresh global research and a call to action for governments to invest in a dedicated institution—similar to how the World Health Organisation was created in the aftermath of the Second World War.
Julia Hobsbawm says: “Work unites us: each day 3.5 billion people work or are looking for work. Other than being born, dying, or searching daily on Google, more people work than they do anything else. What the world of work needs now is a new framework about how we govern, lead, and organise work.
“From the economy to climate to geopolitics to AI and of course, people, workplace, and culture, everything connects to work. Yet work is all too often seen in fragmented contexts, addressed in single-issue silos. Policymakers, executives, and leaders risk missing vital patterns and progress to learn from and act upon.
“2025 has echoes of 1945: A time of rebuild and re-imagination on a global scale is required around work and workplace issues. This is why, at Workathon, we’re setting up The World Work Organization (WWO) to encourage countries to invest in a single institution, which is dedicated to addressing work in all its complexity and which is above all human centric. We must unite around the challenges ahead in a totally different way to before.”
With a foreword by Professor Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, The United State of Work is a report of two halves. The first is a literary flashback to March 2020 and frames its impact on working life with essays which explore trends, workplace, technology, wellbeing, leadership, and global attitudes.
Contributors include:
- Peter Miscovich, JLL’s Global Future of Work Leader and Flore Pradere, JLL’s Head of Research, Global Work Dynamics on the 2020-2025 global transformation of work
- Virginie Raphael on founding venture fund FullCircle for work; “Thinkers50”
- Terence Mauri on Disruption (and Donald Trump)
- Kevin J. Delaney, Editor-in-Chief and Founder of Charter on How America Works Today
- Melis Abacıoğlu of Wellbees and Tom Redmayne of Industrious on well-working workplaces
- Vicky Pryce on being an economist in lockdown
- Brian Elliott of Work Forward and Ben Page of Ipsos on the great RTO debate
- Harriet Pellereau of Mind over Tech and Emma Thwaites of The Open Data Institute on tech’s new challenges
- Phil Kirschner of PK Consulting on change management
- Stefan Stern, management writer and co-host of The Nowhere Office on voices of work from the pandemic
- Paul Brannen, former MEP on Biophilic offices: Wood and Work.
The second half presents early findings of a 12-country study looking at patterns in global work post-pandemic, and US/UK white collar research which highlights concerns around government policy, workplace conflict and AI adoption are also included. Lead researched by Katy Scott.
In the final essay, Workathon’s William Corke explains why the way we research work has to change and Julia Hobsbawm argues for a comprehensive reframing of work; explains why “The United State of Work” is not to be confused with The United States of America, and provides a detailed argument for why we need a World Work Organization.
The United States of Work is Workathon’s first published report and will be published on Monday 10th March 2025 online. Pre-order the report here.
Further information: william@workathon.io
