The State of Work Executive Summary 5 If going by This is certainly true in many ways. So when we set out to better understand The pace of change is faster than at any the state of work today, we were eager to headlines other time in history, and no industry explore first-person attitudes and experi- has yet escaped the forces of what ences. How do these core beliefs about is often called the “Fourth Industrial work affect worker engagement and alone, the state Revolution.” But it’s a surprisingly organizational success? What we learned of work today incomplete picture. is revealed in this analysis. If anything, the true state of work is Slack’s State of Work report draws from is defined by more people-powered than ever before. 17,000 knowledge workers, up and down the organizational chart, from CEOs to Simply put, as automation rises, the work frontline employees, ages 16 to 64. They transformative that is left requires a decidedly human live in 10 countries, span more than 40 touch, such as complex problem-solving industries, and work for companies of technology. and collaboration. all stages and sizes, from “micro-emerg- ing” businesses to large, well-established We see it every day at Slack, even enterprises. There are startups less than as we build this very technology. a year old and companies in business for We believe that any analysis of trends and more than 50 years. To contextualize the technology is secondary to the human data, we conducted in-depth interviews experience of those trends and technolo- with economists, workplace psycholo- gy. (Yes, this from a software company.) gists and frontline workers themselves. © SLACK TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 2019