This sweeping survey of the history of work, from hunter-gatherers to dotcom telecommuters, deftly compresses thousands of years of human evolution into an incisive volume that the Toronto 'Globe & Mail' calls "a page turner of a book." It is a book about work, about the organization and management of work, but it is also a book about people.

The forces that are shaping the future of employment are examined in this new book. The author presents a cohesive argument for a fundamental change in attitudes to work, both from policymakers and employers if we are to create a healthier society capable of meeting the expectations and concerns of a developing economy.

Changing attitudes, living patterns and technologies are transforming our relationship with work in such fundamental ways that tomorrow's workplace will be barely recognizable to that of our parents. To help us make sense of these changes Richard Donkin has examined the forces and themes that are influencing what amounts to a silent revolution in social behavior. Donkin argues that this change is creating a watershed in working lives as significant as that of the factory system that heralded the Industrial Revolution. Unless we understand these forces, he warns, policies may be poorly fitted to meet the challenges ahead posed by environmental change and shrinking oil reserves.
In this timely book, Donkin presents a cohesive argument for policy reform, not only in employment, but also in outdated economic assumptions that are no longer meeting the needs of a resource-hungry world.