TOPIC: Research

The 4.0 Career is Coming...Are You Ready?

The 4.0 Career is Coming… Are You Ready?

By Dr. Mike Atwater

Researcher and writer, Douglas LaBier, describes careers in terms of versions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and the emerging 4.0. The first and most common throughout human history is work by which one survives, this is Version 1.0.  Then, within large, bureaucratic organizations that require layers of management and administration is career Version 2.0. These are white collar jobs in which one advances along a defined path.

LaBier defines the 3.0 Version as a struggle for balance between work and personal life, and notes the 3.0 careerist is less willing than the 2.0 to stick with an unfulfilling job.

Like the 3.0, the 4.0 careerist desires work-life balance but is more focused on impacting something larger than self. That theme links the 4.0 career with the emerging new business model focused on creating sustainable enterprises and the "triple bottom line" -- financial, social and environmental measures of success. This is "social entrepreneurialism" -- the movement towards creating successful businesses that also contribute to the solution of social problems.

How The 4.0 Careerist Thinks and Behaves

Use the following abridged list to assess yourself and your work environment in relation to the rising 4.0 careerist orientation:

• Ability to contribute something positive to people's lives, whether through the product or service, regardless of your status within the company.
• Opportunities for learning, continued growth and expanding skills and competencies.
• A safe and nontoxic office environment and building, including sufficient natural light, and green equipment and furniture.
• Open communication and feedback, up and down.
• A team-oriented, innovative and challenging work culture.
• Positive, supportive leadership and management practices, including corporate citizenship, ethics, transparency and corporate responsibility.
• Commitment to diversity in hiring and promotion of employees, including differences of gender, racial/ethnic group, and sexual orientation.
• Support for workers' well-being, through wellness programs, exercise, stress management, flextime and other programs.

Mental Health Professionals can look to Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived Edited by Corey L. M. Keyes and Jonathan Haidt for Continuing Education on the related topic of positive psychology and living 'the good life' or flourishing.

CE Credits: 13 hours

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