While Polish women and men are among the longest working nations in Europe, our western neighbors, the Germans, are testing a four-day work week. The specter of AI, which may force further changes, still hangs over the entire market. More on this topic in the next Digitized weekly review.
Free access to this article is provided to you by MU Group.
We spend most of our lives at work - this statement is especially true in Poland, where according to Eurostat, the average work week is over 40 hours. Only three other countries have exceeded this threshold: Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. The rest of the inhabitants of Europe not only clearly spend less time on professional activities, but also strive for even greater reduction of these numbers. For example, Germany, which has been testing a four-day work week in some of its companies since the end of September.
Currently, changes in this area seem inevitable. Their catalysts are new EU regulations and the spread of new technologies, led by artificial intelligence. The latter will cause the greatest revolution in the labor market in the coming years, but most likely differently than we expect. You can find more on this topic in the "Digitized Editorial Team recommends" section.
Welcome!
The development of artificial intelligence and the accompanying speculations about the revolution it is supposed to cause in the labor market make it difficult to look into the future with optimism. But is it justified? Digitization has affected the way we perceive ourselves and think about ourselves. It is popular to look for analogies: man as a natural computer, which will soon be "defeated" by powerful technology, far beyond human skills and capabilities.
Robert J. Marks, author of the book Non-computable you: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will. brilliantly deals with this style of thinking. The author himself is the creator of the field of computational intelligence, that part of artificial intelligence that has a real track record and realistic aspirations. He is therefore perfectly prepared to quench excessive excitement and track down nonsense that infects artificial intelligence when it moves from computer science to science fiction.
"People will soon be replaced by machines", "computers will match human intelligence, and then surpass it", "soon we will be uploading ourselves to digital media and achieve immortality" - Marks convincingly shows that all these claims are more unlikely than ancient myths and that in reality they constitute a religious confession for modern materialists.
You can read more about the future of work in the context of AI in Ewa Pawlik's article.
In the context of AI in the labor market, soft skills, which primarily distinguish people from machines, come to the fore. Katarzyna Derka writes more about them in her text about communication styles.
Does ideal communication exist? What to do to make the message understood, but not received negatively? How often do you have to repeat requests and information to reach everyone they concern? How to minimize the risk of conflicts?
These questions are the daily life of most of those responsible for coordination, results and the work of others. However, it is certainly worth taking the time to understand and improve team management skills. Increased efficiency and productivity, engagement, easier relationship building, mutual satisfaction and of course what everyone is waiting for - joint success - await at the finish line.
Research published in February 2022 at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education emphasized the key role of leaders' communication style in effective team and organization management. However, to achieve this, it is necessary to understand what messages reach us
and which ones we repel.
We present four main communication styles: direct, functional, cooperative and influential. Which of them employees belong to may depend on their disposition, professional experience, private experiences, or the generation they belong to.
Social media in event marketing is more than just a notice board. They not only provide the opportunity to promote the event, but can also engage the community in actively creating their own content related to the event. It is also a perfect opportunity to collect valuable feedback.
Stories published on Facebook and Instagram are the most engaging form of communication. They were created to be able to show what is happening on an ongoing basis, so they are the perfect tool to use in event marketing. Although they can only be viewed for 24 hours, they are an extremely important element of the message. They shorten the distance between the publisher and the observers. Event organizers should also pay attention to other positive aspects of this type of communication. What exactly?
More about this in the text by Monika Nowakowska.
Last week, a new installment of the "Map of the European startup system" series also appeared on Digitized. This time we took a closer look at Ukraine, which despite the war still maintains the dynamics of its innovation sector.
According to data from the "IT Ukraine" Association, in the first six months of the war, 95% of domestic technology companies maintained their contracts. Meanwhile, analyses from the National Bank of Ukraine show that during the same period, the entire IT industry recorded over 3.5 billion euros in profit from the export of its services and products - 23% more compared to the same period in 2021. In the first 10 months of 2022, IT service exports increased by 9.9% compared to the previous year and brought in over 6 billion dollars in revenue. Moreover, during the war, two Ukrainian companies - airSlate and Unstoppable Domain - joined the ranks of unicorns, i.e. companies valued at over a billion dollars.
– The development of innovation is one of our priorities – assured in a press statement Michajło Fiodorow, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation of Ukraine. – It is a way to develop the digital economy, increase GDP and strengthen our army. As part of the Seeds of Bravery program, we plan to help about two hundred Ukrainian startups. This is a chance for the development of our innovative community. We believe in the ability of our entrepreneurs to implement revolutionary ideas. That's why we are grateful to the European Innovation Council, which also sees this potential and gives a powerful impulse to the development of innovation in Ukraine – added Fiodorow.
A flourishing element of entrepreneurship in Ukraine is the development of the arms industry and innovations in defense. One of them are drones, the use of which may ultimately tip the scales of victory in favor of Ukraine. You can learn more about the drone revolution from the material of the magazine The Economist.
In Poland, from January 2024, changes have been made to the regulations regarding unregistered business activity. Taxpayers can conduct such activity, provided that the monthly income from it does not exceed 75% of the minimum wage.
![ESG. Consumers expect brands to be involved in ecology [REPORT]](/getcontent/images/size/w30/2023/12/20231207-ochrona-srodowiska-dzialania-wobec-pracownikow.png)
The results of the latest study conducted by the French-Polish Chamber of Commerce show that companies are increasingly focusing on ESG areas, and as many as 84% of the surveyed enterprises actively undertake actions aimed at combating climate change.
As the only company in the world, it is able to produce processors in the most advanced 3 nm technology. In addition, it owns the most expensive factory ever built, and its clients are Apple, NVIDIA and Intel. How did it happen that Taiwanese TSMC became one of the most important companies in the world?
The results of this year's "Reskilling through the eyes of Poles" study show that over half of the working respondents aged 30-59 are considering changing industries. Every second person in this group is considering taking up work in the IT sector, with women declaring their desire to enter this career path more often than men.
English