Commentary: 4 ideas to support a human future of work

Published by Macey Shofroth on September 2, 2025September 2, 2025

By Vanessa C. Marcano-Kelly

Over the past two or three years, we have been seeing, at dizzying speed, how the discourse and dynamics around work, efficiency, productivity and automation have been developing. A lot of us are either using, learning or asking questions about artificial intelligence, and imagining new solutions for the future of work. As women in the workforce, it is of utmost importance for us to stay ahead of the curve in the face of any types of change in the future of work.

When we collectively dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, studies show that it was women who saw a lot of their work disrupted or somehow shifting, sometimes for better and others for worse. When some parts of the workforce were able to shift to remote work with no disruption, women with children had to juggle the demands of professional work, domestic work and their families’ educational support. A large portion of essential workers who were not able to go remote at all were women, and numbers also show that the frontlines of health care were often staffed by women.

Women had to fight every step of the way for our current place in the workforce, and we will continue to have to do so, especially as innovation and the evolution of work advances. Yet one of the things that makes our workforce unique is the ability to maintain the human essence and connection. With this in mind, I would like to share four ideas to support a human future of work.

Solidarity and collective action: In an individualistic society such as the United States, it seems that we have forgotten about the concept of solidarity and how important it should be to us as workers. If we scratch the surface and get out of our bubble a bit, we can realize that the future of work in this country depends on our grasp on solidarity. Factory workers and skilled tradespeople worry about automation, corporate workers and creatives worry about AI. There are differences in the degree of difficulty and the toll our professions take on our bodies, but we shouldn’t let this divide us.

We must lean into our similarities to get back the control over our conditions of work. It’s up to us to see each other’s plight and speak out for better working conditions: fair wages, benefits for all, paid sick leave and family leave, a solid retirement, enforcing occupational health and safety (whether it’s ergonomics as an office worker or consistent water and heat breaks for people working outdoors). Speak to your co-workers, speak to people outside your profession, see yourself in others, cultivate solidarity and unite for a human future of work.

Let the chicken pieces fall: I’ve interpreted several times for the United Food and Commercial Workers union. They do hard work and without their labor, we’d be in trouble. One of the things that stuck with me during those meetings was “letting the chicken pieces fall.” As the meatpacking line speeds increased, workers would move faster to keep up, sometimes injuring themselves, for the sake of production. Nobody told them the line speed would increase, but they adapted at the expense of their bodies, mental health and future livelihood.

The speed increased again. One stressed-out woman couldn’t keep up much longer and dropped some of the chicken pieces. Other workers, too, recognized they shouldn’t continue injuring themselves for conditions they never agreed to. The company noticed the wasted chicken pieces and soon enough, line speeds slowed down for a while. Work and life keep getting more demanding, but we must know our value and our boundaries. Are you going to put your body and sanity at risk or will you let some chicken pieces fall?

¿Qué me cuesta? Back in 2015, when I worked for a government entity, I had to sit at the front desk once a week and provide information and assistance to people facing difficult situations in their lives. Some of them, though, were just trying to get child care assistance. My co-workers told me constantly not to deal with the child care clients because that wasn’t in our scope and those clients had to use the provided phone line. So the child care clients would sit there, wasting upwards of 45 minutes on hold, giving us the stink eye or yelling in frustration.

One day, I was working the desk alone and a Spanish-speaking child care client, two kids in tow, asked me for help. They needed to change some information to keep getting their assistance. “¿Qué me cuesta? (What’s this costing me?),” I asked myself. Instead of making them waste 45 minutes and endure the stink eye, I took down their information, wrote an informed note and put it in the appropriate mailbox to get it taken care of. It was the little power I had, it took about 5 minutes and it made a huge difference for that person. Can you find the flexibility and the power in your rigid processes to just be a fellow human and spare the grief? ¿Qué te cuesta?

What works for you: I have a poster in my office that says “Never not working,” and honestly, that’s not the best advice. I was in Istanbul in 2022, replying to emails at ungodly hours and my brother called me out on this ridiculous behavior. Since last summer, I’ve been protecting my weekends and my vacation time in a way that works for me. I do the prep work to delegate or accept I’m letting some business go, and organize to unplug for real during my vacation time. On weekends, I don’t really check email.

But I once unplugged for six weeks in 2021 and had a four-hour anxiety attack before flying back from Austria to Des Moines because I had not checked on any work at all. That was an unpleasant experience that nobody wants again. So, on longer vacations, I choose one day and set aside 30 minutes to review and prioritize. If it can wait until I return, let it be, and if it’s of critical importance, I reply. But honestly? Unless you’re a doctor, a lawyer or the president – it all can probably just wait.

Vanessa C. Marcano-Kelly is a native of Caracas, Venezuela. She is a class A certified court interpreter in the state of Iowa, ATA-certified Spanish translator, and owner of Caracas Language Solutions, LLC. She is also a strategist in the global brand and experience content studio at Principal. She is the board president of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice. Marcano-Kelly was named a Business Record Forty Under 40 in 2024. She lives in West Des Moines with her husband, Michael, and their dog Kal-El.