{"id":1406,"date":"2025-01-22T08:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T13:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/?post_type=cu_story&p=1406"},"modified":"2025-01-22T08:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T13:40:11","slug":"dr-linda-duxbury-on-the-future-of-work","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/story\/dr-linda-duxbury-on-the-future-of-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Linda Duxbury on the Future of Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Dr. Linda Duxbury on the Future of Work\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s New Economy, few researchers have been as pivotal in examining the impact of workplace transformations as Dr. Linda Duxbury, Chancellor\u2019s Professor in Carleton\u2019s Sprott School of Business.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Duxbury\u2019s research on employee wellbeing originated in the 1980s, when teleworking \u2013 the process of working outside of your main office space \u2013 was rapidly gaining popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After earning her PhD in Management, she received two large research grants to take a closer look at how the workplace was impacting employees and to better understand how employees felt about their organizations. For more than three decades, Dr. Duxbury has interviewed and collected survey data from over 150,000 Canadians on topics ranging from work-life balance to the evolution of the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what drew her to these research topics, Dr. Duxbury explained that she\u2019s a people person and has always been interested in how broader societal change impacts people\u2019s relationships with their work.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

“People instigate change, they respond to change, but they try not to, all of which is very interesting,\u201d said Dr. Duxbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her research currently focuses on topics related to changing work environments and global circumstances, and how this impacts recruitment, retention, stress levels, and engagement. She explained that, in 2024, companies who don\u2019t manage their people well are dealing with financial consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe problem is that some organizations talk good management, but they don\u2019t give people time to manage,\u201d said Dr. Duxbury.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dr. Duxbury gathered interview data from over 70 dual-career parents at 19 points in time during the COVID-19 pandemic and survey data from 100,000 employees. She said that organizations who want to support their workforce post-COVID and well into the future must acknowledge that employees at different life cycle stages will have vastly different wants and needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of offering streamlined benefits to all, organizations can offer specific benefits for working parents, education benefits for employees who want to gain new skills, and other packages with built-in flexibility for greater employee wellbeing and satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in the era of hybrid, remote, and flexible work arrangements, Dr. Duxbury advised that organizations should aim to capture the diversity of positions and people in their flexible work policies. While hybrid work is the most complicated to manage, Dr. Duxbury said that socialization, developing a workplace culture, and getting to know colleagues is key to employee satisfaction. It\u2019s also important that employees who have hybrid arrangements are in the office on the same days as their peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing makes people angrier than coming to work on one of their in-office days and then having to spend all their time on a Zoom call,\u201d Dr. Duxbury said. \u201cFlexible work is not a simple problem, so you have to spend time to get it right,\u201d said Dr. Duxbury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generational differences also play a role in how employees view their work. Watershed events \u2013 events marking a unique or important historical change of course \u2013 regularly impact people\u2019s attitudes towards work too. Dr. Duxbury clarified that after COVID-19, employees across the board are putting more emphasis on their personal lives and loved ones than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cEveryone now puts family and life higher on their priority list, which has increased conflict, stress and turnover,\u201d said Dr. Duxbury. \u201cIt also makes succession planning more difficult.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When it comes to preparing for and adapting to the evolving landscape of work, employers can best support employees by acknowledging the unique needs of their workforce and building a culture that makes employees feel like they\u2019re a part of something bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about professionals, they want to feel their work is more than just money and a paycheck. They want to feel they\u2019re contributing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s New Economy, few researchers have been as pivotal in examining the impact of workplace transformations as Dr. Linda Duxbury, Chancellor\u2019s Professor in Carleton\u2019s Sprott School of Business. “People instigate change, they respond to change, but they try not to, all of which is very interesting,\u201d said Dr. Duxbury. Her research currently focuses on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":1440,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1406","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1445,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1406\/revisions\/1445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}