Take a moment to think about the word “work”.

Part of its meaning is rooted in the activity it represents: farming, programming, carpentry, factory work and analyzing data.

Another aspect of work’s significance is the social groups it represents. Today’s work world is comprised of 55 million Millennials, 53 million Gen Xers and 44 million Baby Boomers.

Also intertwined in actions and groups is the status of employees: freelancer, contractor, part-time, full-time and per-diem.

Think of each of these different words as galactic bodies weaving, orbiting and rocketing their way along as time passes quicker than you can imagine.

At some point, all these forces could collide.

As we thought about the concept of work, a Forbes series on the future of work sent our thinking into warp speed. It was a fascinating exploration of the workplace and the forces which constantly twist, shape and torque it.

Freelancers: The New Workforce

If you want one statistic that defines how much freelancers mean to America’s companies, it’s this: The use of freelancers has jumped by 70% in the past 20 years from 9.3% to 15.8%, Entrepreneur reported.

Websites like Gigster and Upwork have made it as easy as ever for companies to find and hire freelance help, with the majority of jobs given to developers, designers and copywriters.

Gigster is a great example of how popular freelancing sites have become. Founder Roger Dickey started the site in 2013. By 2014, it had $1 million in revenue and just one year later the company brought in $10 million. IBM and MasterCard have used the site to find top-notch developers.

Exactly why freelancing is booming is something Fast Company discussed in 2015. Reporter Brendon Schrader said part of the explanation is the rise of sites like Gigster.

“There are now more ways to work remotely than ever before, from devices, apps, and other personal technology that lets us communicate with one another from virtually everywhere,” Schrader wrote. “But there’s another kind of technology that plays an arguably bigger role—platforms designed to match companies with talent.”

Schrader rightly points out that freelancing can be a lonely profession – most workers are at home and don’t interact with their coworkers beyond an occasional phone call, Slack or Skype. And that leads us to the next sign of a new work world: co-working.

Co-work Spaces: Home to the Future of Freelancers

Nobody likes being the outcast; humans, for the most part, like interaction with real people.

While the freelancing industry is absolutely booming, there are thousands of independent developers, designers and writers who are craving more than independence; they want community.

As a result, an entire network (and economy) of co-working spaces, office space where freelancers who have no affiliation with each can work side-by-side.

Forbes is predicting that coworking spaces will soon experience huge growth. In their March 2016 article titled, “Coworking Spaces Poised to Enter New Growth Phase”, contributor Falguni Desai wrote, “Operators have emerged alongside the startup boom. While everyone has been reading and talking about fintech, virtual reality and drones, this fast growing, new sub-sector of the real estate market has become one of the largest startup segments, hiding in plain sight.”

These community properties tend to emphasize open spaces, bright colors and community kitchens. They are, no doubt, following the design tendencies of startups who are shunning traditional office designs and opting for floor plans as innovative and creative as the products and services they’re selling.

The Employee-Focused Office: Design Caters to Workers

Along with the emergence of freelancers and their community workspaces is the explosion of office designs which focus on the holistic needs of employees. Instead of cavernous corner offices and dark lighting that says, “We are powerful and successful,” companies are opting for spaces which say, “We are concerned with our people.”

Forbes listed several companies whose office spaces are leaders in this new era. Wired was one of those examples.

The company’s library “caters to the introverted or those looking for alone time,” Forbes wrote.

Randy Howder, principal at design firm Gensler, said the spaces they design often reflect and reinforce the product which their client creates.

For example, his company features quiet alcoves where employees can meet for conversations or conduct phone calls. These types of spaces allow for on-the-fly dialogue, something that Howder said “fits better with the agile methodology most companies use to develop software.”

But Gensler doesn’t just design spaces for software developers, and although their clients change, their methodology doesn’t: Design and furniture express the company, not the other way around.

At Etsy, Forbes points out, nearly all the furniture purchased for their office was sourced from artisans, a direct reflection of Etsy’s handmade online marketplace.

The Future of Work Looks Pretty Amazing

The work world is truly transforming before our eyes. The freelance and coworking markets are just beginning to emerge as powerful forces. Office designs are borne of the unique personalities of employees and the companies for which they work.

Will freelancers one day outnumber office workers? Will companies diversify their main offices into multiple coworking spaces designated by department or seniority? Is the freelance market just a trend?

We’re interested to see how this all develops over the next decade. Aren’t you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Unless you’ve been travelling through Southeast Asia for the past five years without a smartphone, then you’ve probably noticed that management styles have undergone some significant changes.

For years, the top-down model ruled just about every kind of organization in the country. There was a boss, some mid-level management and a bunch of employees. The boss gave the directive, the managers passed it on to the employees and everything was great.

As Millennials flooded the workforce, those age-old notions of proper management started to crumble. The model’s viability was questioned and new ideas of community-style learning and leading emerged. The Strategic Leadership Institute (SLI) calls this the “Servant Leader” model.

Along with that shift in workplace mentality came a shift in workplace organization… offices were transformed into open areas where collaboration was the key.

This significant change got us thinking about the history of management and how it’s changed not just over the past decade, but over the past few centuries.

The First Big Shift Came at the End of the 19^th Century

Entrepreneurs are basically the rock stars of today’s business world. However, this trend is nothing new.  Back in the 19^th century, business owners were bootstrapping their way to success just like they are today.

Entrepreneurial Capitalism

This movement was called “entrepreneurial capitalism,” SLI pointed out in a 2009 article on the history of management. Individuals used their own money to start their businesses.

The Harvard Business Review has a nice explanation of this managerial movement:

“Prior to the industrial revolution, of course, there wasn’t much ‘management’ at all – meaning, anyone other than the owner of an enterprise handling tasks such as coordination, planning, controlling, rewarding, and resource allocation.”

Managerial Capitalism

However, when the 20^th century rolled around, those self-funded companies started to grow. The Industrial Revolution brought with it massive companies who couldn’t operate under the principles of entrepreneurial capitalism. So, they adopted a new style of management called “managerial capitalism” to corral and transform their large workforces.

As American shifted to this new style of management, various experts began to study the manufacturing process. Through their work, managers were able to understand how long it took to manufacture a certain product and what type of efficiency they could expect out of a single employee.

Expertise Becomes the Calling Card of 20^th Century Management

The 20^th century brought not only the boom of managerial capitalism, but also a scientific approach to management that mirrored the prevailing modernist mindset of the first half of the 1900’s.

An article by Rita McGrath in the Harvard Business Review calls this the era of “expertise,” in which “writers such as Elton Mayo, Mary Parker Follett, Chester Barnard, Max Weber, and Chris Argyris imported theories from other fields (sociology and psychology) to apply to management. Statistical and mathematical insights were imported (often from military uses) forming the basis of the field that would subsequently be known as operations management.”

Organizations basically became well-oiled machines operating on scientific theories of efficiency and structure. A worker’s value was based on how well he or should could perform his or her role within the overall machine.

But that concept of leadership and management started to change when author Peter Drucker started to question a mechanical approach to leadership. Workers were more than just robots playing a small part in a huge machine – they were a wealth of knowledge that helped the company survive.

A Shift from Robotic to Relational: Employees as Knowledge-Holders

“When all the value in an organization walks out the door each evening, a different managerial contract than the command-and-control mindset prevalent in execution type work is required,” Harvard Business Review pointed out. “Thus, new theories of management arose that put far more emphasis on motivation and engagement of workers.”

So, instead of bosses ordering a legion of mindless robots to do menial tasks, managers started to realize that employees were assets for their knowledge just as much as their ability to perform a task.

Elton Mayo, one of the authors mentioned earlier, was one of the influencers of a new movement of management. This new movement put an emphasis on social interactions in the workplace and an appeal to the emotions of employees as the primary determining factor in efficiency, SLI noted in its article

You could say that Mayo, along with other proponents of a more human managerial system, created the platform by which today’s employee-focused managerial style found its growth. McGrath calls this the “era of empathy,” while SLI dubbed it the era of “servant leadership.”

We think McGrath’s words are pretty fitting to conclude this brief history of management:

“We are also grappling with widespread dissatisfaction with the institutions that have been built to date, many of which were designed for the business-as-machine era. They are seen as promoting inequality, pursuing profit at the expense of employees and customers, and being run for the benefit of owners of capital, rather than for a broader set of stakeholders. At this level, too, the challenge to management is to act with greater empathy.”

“Career change” can mean a lot of things.

The phrase encompasses both the good and bad side of employment – you’ve found a new mission for your life, you got sick of your old job, you were fired or were laid off. Regardless of the reason behind a career change, you’re going to face transition. And most likely, the Bureau of Labor Statistic says, that transition will happen about every 4.5 years.

Dealing with that transition can be a pretty difficult process depending on how much time you had to prepare for it. A without-notice firing can send you into a tailspin while a planned transition usually comes with a gentler season of change.

There are plenty of opinions out there about how you should conduct your job search and handle your transition. We’ve collected some of the best insights.

If You’re Thinking About Leaving, Be Certain and Methodical in Your Decision

The feeling of being trapped in a job you don’t like can be pretty suffocating. If the pay is good, you might be afraid to leave because you’re not sure if you can command the same salary at your next job. If the pay is poor and you’re just scraping by, you may worry that the absence of a paycheck could ruin your financial life.

Because so much is often at stake, it’s important to make a logical decision as opposed to an emotional one, says career expert Karen Elizaga.

A few years ago she talked with Fast Company about the nuances of career change. Her advice to those thinking about changing careers? Jumping ship isn’t always the answer and don’t react too quickly.

Take a moment to analyze why you feel the way you do about your current job. Is there a possibility that you could change your emotions by changing your mindset?

“Sometimes simply changing your mindset or how you approach your work, how you work with others or how you take care of yourself outside the office can help [turn your career around] to better suit your strengths,” she said.

If a change in mindset doesn’t work, then it may be time to leave. But that doesn’t mean you should take the first opportunity that comes along. We’ve all known someone who’s jumped ship at a job they hate only to land a job they end up hating just as much or more.

While a change in environment is nice, the honeymoon phase wears off pretty quickly. So, Elizaga said, be wise in your choice.

“If you’re really secure about where you excel and where you fall down, you can look outside and say, ‘Now that I know the kind of person I am and the kind of job I would enjoy, I can look out at the universe of jobs that are out there and make the move,'” she said during her Fast Company interview.

Know Your Long-Term Goals

If you’re clinging to the railing of a sinking ship, you don’t want to jump into a lifeboat engulfed in flames. Your goal is, after all, to leave the ship and stay alive.

When you’re preparing to leave your job for a new position or new career track, you need to have a long-term plan mapped out, says BroadbandTV CEO and Founder Shahrzad Rafati.

“What do you really want to get out of your career? What are your long-term goals? I always believe it’s important to think five to 10 years ahead,” Rafati said in a Fortune article. “The change that you make should be a logical step in an overarching direction.

Rafati also elaborated on the questions you should ask yourself before you leave because, she said, they should guide you to the job that will meet your needs:

• If you’re leaving a place because of a poisonous work environment, you should focus your search efforts on a company that values positive workplace culture.
• If you can’t stand the fact that your boss expects you to work late, search for a position within a company that values work-life balance.

Wrapping It Up: Be Smart About Your Career Change

When you’re in a place you hate, it’s really hard not to want to take the first job that comes your way. Truth be told, it’s equally as hard to acknowledge that a change in mentality could result in a change of your thoughts about your job.

Rather than take the easy way out – changing jobs without doing some soul-searching – you should make a concerted effort to understand why you feel the way you do about your job. Know why you don’t like where you’re at, what you need from your next job and, ultimately, where you want to be 10 years from now. Tough questions will lead to wise decisions.

Or, as S’well CEO Sarah Kauss said in her 2015 Fortune article, “Facing the unknown will always be daunting. But thinking of the short-term move in relation to your long-term career objectives can help make a career transition more appealing.”

There isn’t a single one of us who wouldn’t want the chance to impress our boss, especially during that time of the year when we’re up for a performance review.

Now, you might be dreading the thought of dazzling your boss simply because it has connotations of sucking up. There’s definitely something to be said about that method of winning over your managers; when it’s done in bad form you tend to lose more friends than you make.

Fortunately, there are plenty of proven ways to win points with your superiors without being the perennial purveyor of flattery.

Make an Appearance Outside of Work

This doesn’t have to be a regular habit, but occasionally showing up to after-work events or parties is a great way to not only interact with your coworkers outside of the work environment, but to also show your boss you’re invested (even if just a little bit) in your job.

Again, this doesn’t mean that you have to say yes to every invite you get, but don’t say no to every invite you get, either.

As Business Insider Contributor Angelica Marden wrote, it’s totally normal to begrudge an after-work get-together.

“Prove you care by making an appearance for one drink, a short conversation, or the toast, and then sneak back to your mountain of work or personal engagements,” she wrote. “Your boss will remember whether or not you showed but will be too busy to notice when you ducked out.”

Not a bad strategy, in our opinion, but you may run into trouble if your boss keeps a close eye on everything happening and sees you scoot out after just a few minutes.

Make Your Voice Heard

Before you run off to your computer to send a scathing email about company policy, take a moment to think this point through.

Effective teams work because each player is clear on what’s happening on the field of play. What happens when one person doesn’t know their job? Disaster.

Don’t be that person who misses a crucial piece of information and then doesn’t ask a question later. Speak up when you have to, even if it means admitting you missed out on an important point. Chances are, you’re not the only one.

“Everyone appreciates clear communication and brainstorming, and the healthiest way to get support is to ask for it,” Marden wrote.

Take Ownership

You used to hear the phrase “buy in” tossed around when evaluating new employees. Do they believe in what we’re doing? Do they use our products or services? Can we count on them to love the brand as much as we do?

Buy-in is often used as a determining factor for hiring someone, but it also comes in play when managers consider an employee’s prospects for long-term employment with the company. And there’s nothing that’s a more powerful testimony of your worth than taking ownership.

Of course, “taking ownership” isn’t a single-dimension phrase. You can take ownership of a project, which means you embrace it and are proactive. You ask questions and get solutions.

You can take ownership of a mistake, meaning you don’t pass the blame on someone else but you accept your mistake and admit it was yours.

There’s also the aspect of taking ownership of a new role or position, where you attack it with confidence and enthusiasm like you did the first day you were hired.

All of these qualities of ownership reflect well on you and win points with your boss.

Carly Sec, a contributor for Hubspot, put it this way: “Don’t be afraid to bring big ideas to the table. This is the type of behavior that bosses love to see, as it exemplifies your ability to think about the business on a high level.”

Use Books to Increase Your Value

We all know that learning more about our companies and all the intricacies therein makes us more valuable as employees.

However, the tough thing with boning up on your corporate knowledge is that it’s really hard to calibrate when and how much you should say in certain situations. Dropping a knowledge dump on your colleagues and boss can come off as a little overbearing.

So, take a different route to increasing your value through learning: bring a business book to work with you. It doesn’t have to be an iconic work of old; it can be a contemporary book like Ashlee Vance’s biography of Elon Musk.

Reading it during lunch breaks not only sharpens your acumen, but it also acts as a conversation starter with your colleagues. And, in the end, your boss is bound to notice you reading up on the latest business and entrepreneurial trends.

A recent Men’s Health article noted, “You are developing your mind and your outlook … and turning yourself into a more valuable employee.”