Book on ‘future of work’ in the post-pandemic era launched

KOLKATA: COVID-19 has created a paradigm shift in the way we work. Avik Chanda’s new book, titled ‘Work 3.0, which he co-anchored with Sid Bandyopadhyay, renewed the lives of the authors during the long and painful period of lockdowns and social distancing in India and the UK. Using rigorous research and a scientific data analytical method, the book focuses on the future of work in the post-pandemic era.

“The bulk of the research and much of the writing of Work 3.0 was undertaken during the pandemic. It was born out of the necessity of not just trying to make sense of a present when the whole world appeared bleak but to look beyond it, to a future time of new possibilities and rejuvenation,” said Chanda, a bestselling author, columnist and business advisor. His earlier book ‘From Command to Empathy’ is featured in Amazon India’s best reads for business, strategy and management.

Both writers closely examined the personal transformation that individuals need to make, in order to be successful in the emergent workplace. They termed this process the ‘First Inner Revolution or IR 1.0’.

“While there’s a range of emergent skills in demand in the future, we have identified some specific behavioural capabilities that are critical in achieving the transformation. So, overcoming fear, future-mindedness, and resilience are important to survive in the future workplace,” said Chanda, who recently was present at the book launch at a city bookshop with economic historian Prof Tirthankar Roy and Krishnan Srinivasan, ex-foreign secretary & Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth.

Chanda and Bandyopadhyay, a professor of economics at the University of Birmingham, have combined academic research with reports on industry applications, business case studies, expert interviews, and their combined personal expertise and insights of over five decades to come up with the book. “What makes Work 3.0 distinctive is a strong humanist tenor in the whole text, and especially the conclusion, a call to balance technologies that engulf us in “metaverse” with sentiments, capacities, and potentials, which are not only wholesome but also suggestive of how one should reorganise lives,” said Roy.