2023 Future Of Work Forecast: Employee Autonomy And The Persistent Great Reshuffle

This article is part of the Allwork.Space 2023 Future Of Work Forecast. Click here to read about other trends we expect to see in the new year and how they will impact the future of work.

• In 2022, workforce trends tended to emphasize mental health, generational divides, and a surprising but liberating continuation of the Great Resignation.  
• 2023 will create changes in workforce culture, giving workers more autonomy.  
• The rise of worker autonomy in 2023 will involve significant alterations to employee experience and positive social changes in workspace cultures designed to cultivate self-starters and collaborators alike.    

PART OF OUR 2023 FUTURE OF WORK FORECAST

In 2023, the rise of worker autonomy will hold the center of attention in workforce trends.  

Workers are no longer interested in outdated work modalities and etiquette expectations. Instead, employees are looking for positive experiences that make real impacts, and an increasing portion of the workforce is willing to leave their place of work to find those experiences.  

Companies that lack flexibility, impactful climate change initiatives and tolerant workspaces will increasingly get left behind in the future of work. Here are our workforce trend predictions for the new year. 

Autonomous Employee Experiences 

Pre-pandemic work had little emphasis on the employee experience concerning personal autonomy. In considerable measure, workforce trends before COVID entailed employees being told to be grateful for what they had — a job and a paycheck. 

COVID changed this attitude significantly, with large numbers of workers exposed to flexible work for the first time. 

Remote work and flexible schedules are not going anywhere.  

However, due to the “Great Return” and an upcoming economic downturn, many are now saying that the first jobs to go will be remote.  

In 2023, the employee experience will increasingly involve standing up for oneself to maintain flexibility gains made in the past few years.  

This effort is, in itself, a demonstration of worker autonomy.  

Luckily, compromises in the form of hybrid work modalities, which both employees and employers approve of, are being seriously considered, as the Great Return has primarily been a failure. 

This is confirmed by the estimate that 25% of workers will work remotely by the end of 2023, according to Upwork.  

Company and Workplace Cultures as Increasingly Independent and Socially-Dynamic  

The culture of a workplace expresses the values that govern its social functionality.  

In 2023, the norms in many workplaces will change. Changes to expect include employees wanting more in return for their work, including being tired of accusations of quiet-quitting, which is spurred by unfulfilling jobs.  

Another related trend to expect in 2023 — one that will be influenced by a lack of response to that desired return in exchange for their work — is more workers who abruptly quit their jobs, and more workers spending time looking for another job or becoming self-starters.  

If workers do not feel valued, they will leave, and the data shows that more than half of the workers do not feel valued at their current job.  

While workplace cultures will at first see a revolt, it will be a revolt that transforms workspaces into places of community and belonging.  

The modern workforce is autonomous; the past year has made clear that workers are interested in hybrid or remote options.  

2023 will feature more workforce disruptions as companies either embrace this or choose not to.