Why Do We Keep Advocating 'Smart' Work While Asking Employees to Work Harder?

With such extraordinary innovation possible with tech, do we need to entirely reimagine the world of work for the new digital age?

At Fluid, our motto is ‘work a better day, live a better life.’ Here’s how it’s helping us revolutionize the world of work, and what we’d like to share about our journey.

One of my favourite quotes is by Doug Conant, the former CEO of the Campbell Soup Company; it says “to win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.” With over 15 years of work experience and as a CEO myself, I know just how hard it can be to win in the workplace.  I’ve seen the brightest of my colleagues struggle with work-induced anxiety, deteriorating mental health, a lack of work-life balance, and the absence of a well-rounded life. I’ve struggled with it all myself. 

On the other hand, I’ve also seen organizations do what they can for employee wellbeing. And yet, it doesn’t seem to be nearly enough. Perhaps it’s because leaders find their responsibilities for financial results to be divorced from work culture and employee wellbeing. Perhaps they just don’t know how to align the two. The global pandemic certainly hasn’t made things easier. Jobs used to be 9-5; now it’s commonplace for people to be filling in timesheets until 11 pm and to be waking up for Zoom meetings at 7 am. 

What if there really were a way to reconcile and enhance both corporate performance and employee wellbeing simultaneously? What if one holistic solution brought together several touchpoints for creating, delegating, coordinating, and managing work, truly helping an entire organization work ‘smarter’ rather than ‘harder’? What if project management could be entirely re-envisioned for our new digital world of work?

At Fluid, that’s exactly what we’re committed to. Here’s how we’re changing the world of work and some key insights I’ve gained along the way as CEO that I’d like to share with you.