I'm a Work Futurist. "What's that?"
The story of how I crafted my hybrid title, and what it actually means.
I’ve never worked a corporate 9-5.
It started with being the youngest of 3 in my family. And as many “youngest siblings” would know, there are pros and cons of this birth order.
Pro: we tend to be the most spoiled
Con: our siblings dislike us for that (for a limited amount of time)
Pro: we learn from our siblings’ mistakes
Con: we feel like we need to try 1000X harder to carve our own path
My beef with 9-5 corporate jobs came about when I followed my siblings’ footsteps and attended USC for college. Sophomore year, it was time for me to finalize my major - and in doing so, differentiate my path from that of my siblings. My brother studied Business, and my sister, Communications.
Then I thought about both of their careers. At the time, my siblings were both working at big corporate companies. And it was through osmosis that I learned how different post-grad life could be from the reality that was portrayed to us in college.
It made sense then, that 30% of people apply their majors to their careers. And I thought, ‘Since I don’t know WTF I wanna do, what’s one problem I see in the world that I wanna try to solve? So that I could walk out of here with knowledge I could apply.”
The problem: Corporate BS.
The idea that you had to check your authentic self at the door to fit into a work culture was outdated, dumb, and not something I wanted to participate in.
At 19 years old, I saw that organizations were wasting their potential to do good by NOT leading people-first, and that they could be creating workplaces that positively contribute to peoples lives instead of taking away from them.
The solution?
I felt like most people in boardrooms made decisions that didn’t reflect their understanding or attention to some of the most basic human needs (underpaying, micro-managing, non-flexible hours, etc). I realized that I wanted to improve people’s lives at scale, by changing the way that decisions were made in the boardroom. From finance-first to human-first.
My plan was to:
Study Social Sciences and Psychology
Attend as many events on campus as possible, and
Ask a hell of a lotta questions.
Be able to walk into any room, relate to anyone, and listen to understand them.
Walk into any boardroom as the most well-versed on people, and change lives at scale.
Almost 5 years after arriving at that conclusion, I’ve established myself as a Gen Z Workplace Futurist, fostering an elevated consciousness around the intersection of identity, culture, and workplace.
To put it simply, I believe that everyone deserves access to knowledge & tools that support fulfillment. I dream of a world where everyone feels valued, supported and fulfilled in the workplace and beyond. And through amplifying innovative technology, fostering connection, and curating meaningful content, I bring people together with intention, to talk about how we create more flexible, equitable, and transparent cultures.
If you’re interested in being involved, here are some projects I’m working on:
Future of Work Community - For Founders, VCs, and those passionate about reimagining work, workspaces, and workplaces. Weekly events include founders showcasing innovative solutions, VCs discussing future of work trends, and member-hosted fireside chats on current challenges.
New Show in the works - Are you a People-First Founder, Employee Experience, Internal Community Builder, or Communications Expert? Hit me up via LinkedIn, or email me at danielle@daniellefarage.com
More projects in the works!