Reflections on the 2003 Trends Article

This article was like a bad salad--a little bit of everything about the "future" workforce trends--but as a whole it was not a tasty bite of insight.
Trend # 5 "Companies won't sleep" bothered me the most, particularly because the it implies that running a 24/7 business will require 24/7 employees. I do not believe that This article was like a bad salad--a little bit of everything about the "future" workforce trends--but as a whole it was not a tasty bite of insight. Trend #5 "Companies won't sleep" bothered me the most particularly because it implies that running a 24/7 business will require 24/7 employees: "You may have to offer nighttime child-care providers, who watch kids while they sleep" Rather, I think organization are becoming more global and internationally convenient--with groups of people working collaboratively across the globe by letting projects begin in a workday on one side of the world and allow the project to continue on another side of the world allowing people on all side to sleep and care for themselves according to their own timezone.
Also in trend # 15 "Recruiting Older Workers" although the point an older workforce is a reality, recruiting them by terminology such as "experienced workers" and "age-diverse" appears to be a poor strategy and a mis-focused outlook on the challenge. Instead of world play in the recruitment process, it seems that companies and HR professional should focus their energies on how to enable the older workforce keep up with technological changes that are now increasingly becoming a requirement for successful job performance and how to customize a workforce to enable maximum utilization of the older worker's skill set, dedication, and work ethic.
However the trend #8 "Office Design" and trend #18 "Pay for Wellness Performance" do bring a valid point that does apply, and probably will apply in future. Designing an workspace that is both efficient and comfortable together with accessible opportunities for employees to wellness programs and schedules seem to be areas that will go hand in hand towards better performing organizations.