ANDREW ROSS | New York University

There was an ethos that preached the leveling of workplace hierarchies and liberation for workers from bureaucratic constraints. The office came to represent the place where our identity was to be most deeply felt.

Now there’s a certain normalization of the workplace — a chance for people to slow down. As an advocate of the labor movement, I hope we will see a more humane workplace in the future. By that I mean a company culture that not only embraces some of the ideals pioneered in the past few years, but encourages balance as well. People shouldn’t regard their jobs with dread or dullness. But they also shouldn’t fall in love with their jobs; that level of personal investment isn’t healthy.

There’s also an opportunity for a new kind of modesty. Americans have to realize that attributes that we consider virtuous in our business culture often come across as arrogant elsewhere. Ultimately, any crisis or setback should be seen as an opportunity to build in completely innovative ways, rather than simply to shore up and bolster the old — even if the old was meant to represent entirely new ways of working.

Andrew Ross is on sabbatical from New York University. He is conducting an ethnography of Silicon Valley workplace culture.