For generations, work – for all but a privileged elite – meant a form of servitude. Employees were supplicants without rights or protection – Bob Cratchits reliant on the goodwill of their bosses to secure a day off or a pay rise. But over the past century a revolution has taken place in the control people have over their working lives.
In the west, jobs have become part of an assumed right to self-actualisation. By this creed, a job is part of who we are and we are entitled not simply to a salary but also to satisfaction.
The notion is that employees, cosseted by incentive schemes and tax-deductible gym memberships, will be more likely to stay, and employers will have a better chance of making a return on investment in staff development.