DEMOS

Dodgy prediction report: Lucy Kellaway argues that 2007 is the year when flexible working goes out of fashion. Part of her argument is that the debate over work-life balance has been misleading. It's raised employee expectations without really changing what employers want, which is for their staff to work very hard for as little cash as possible. Time for all this pretence to end and for everyone to get their own cubicle again.

Maybe, but another article alongside Kellaway's (sub required) points in another direction - arguing that the competition for top talent is going to intensify greatly over the coming year. That suggests to me that the most talented are going to be able to demand ever more for their services than in the past. Will they really just want money?

What does it all  mean? If both the articles are right (and I'm not sure they are), it's pretty depressing. The people at the top get to demand more and more, but the people in the middle and at the bottom return to cubicle-based dronery, if indeed they ever really left it in the first place. The removal of hierarchies that was supposed to liberate creativity could just turn into a new way to place more responsibility onto the neo-proles.

It certainly raises some interesting challenges for the agenda we set out a few years ago in Disorganisation. One good thing that might come out of a return to something like business as usual in the workplace is a renewed concern with workplace justice, unionism, fair regulation etc.

If the knowledge economy isn't really about to transform me into a freewheeling hippy-capitalist entrepreneur, then maybe I should get a bit more concerned with bettering my lot through collective action.

Of course, I've just fallen into the trap of making a dodgy prediction myself. All in a day's work...