What work, purpose and the return of social life might be telling us about what people really need.
For years, the future seemed to be moving in one direction: more convenience, more speed, more flexibility and more of life happening online.
Work became more sophisticated, communication became instant, entertainment became endless, and almost everything became available on demand.
And then, somewhere along the way, people started going roller skating.
They started playing pickleball and padel. Pub quizzes remained stubbornly popular. Running clubs became social events. Some people even started going to gatherings where the whole point was to hand over your phone and spend a couple of hours reading, drawing, talking or simply being around other people.
None of this sounds especially futuristic. Which may be exactly the point.
At the same time, employee engagement remains low, particularly in Europe, while younger workers repeatedly say that purpose, wellbeing and work-life balance matter to them. [1] [2]
Perhaps these things are more connected than they first appear. Maybe people aren’t rediscovering old-fashioned hobbies. Maybe they’re rediscovering old-fashioned needs.
The things that never really went away
A pub quiz is supposedly about knowing which year a song was released or confidently insisting that the capital of somewhere is definitely something it isn’t.
But it is also about routine. You know where you’re going on Thursday night. The same people may be there. Someone will get far too competitive. And if you don’t turn up, somebody might notice.
Padel and pickleball offer something similar: a booking in the calendar, other people who expect you to be there, a shared activity and a reason to do it again next week.
Even the return of puzzle clubs and phone-free gatherings makes more sense when you stop looking at the activity itself and start looking at what it gives people: connection, play, regularity, presence and the feeling of being known by others.
Technology changes quickly. Human needs seem to change much more slowly.
What if this is the rebalance?
I wonder if we are seeing something broader. What if this is a rebalance that has been waiting to happen for a generation or two?
For many professional people, work gradually came to carry a huge amount of weight. It provided income, of course, but also identity, status, social connection, structure, recognition, friendship, achievement and purpose.
That is quite a lot to ask of a job.
For a while, perhaps it worked. Careers felt relatively clear. Offices gave people a social structure. Promotions created momentum. Work gave people a story to tell about who they were and where they were going.
But many of those assumptions are now changing. Careers are becoming less predictable. Hybrid working has changed the social role of the office. AI and automation are changing the structure of work. Younger workers are increasingly questioning whether ambition should automatically mean longer hours, more pressure and more sacrifice.
Perhaps the result is not that work is becoming unimportant. Perhaps it is simply being put back into proportion.
Maybe the real shift isn’t that work is becoming less important. It’s that life is becoming important again.
Purpose doesn’t have to wear a lanyard
We talk a lot about finding purpose, and somehow that conversation often becomes a career discussion.
But purpose doesn’t have to come through work.
It can live in family, friendship, learning, making things, helping others, improving your health, contributing to a community or simply being the person who brings people together.
Some people genuinely get a huge sense of purpose from work. Others may find that work gives them the income and freedom to create meaning elsewhere.
That is just as valid.
Perhaps it is more useful to think about purpose as something spread across several parts of life rather than asking one thing to provide all of it.
Work can be part of that. It doesn’t have to be the whole thing.
The harder question is: what do you actually need?
This is where knowing yourself becomes useful.
Two people can say, “I need a new job,” and mean completely different things.
One may need growth. Another may need recognition. Another may need more freedom. Another may simply be lonely.
The same applies to, “I need to get fit.” One person may want health. Another confidence. Another competition. Another community.
The outward goal looks the same. The need underneath it is different.
That is why the “why” matters. Not as a slogan, but as something practical.
Knowing yourself helps you understand the need beneath the goal. Once the “why” becomes clearer, the “what” becomes easier to choose.
That, to me, is what useful reflection should do. Not create endless self-analysis. Help us make better decisions.
Your life leaves clues
The difficulty is that most of us don’t necessarily think we need to stop and reflect. Life is busy. Things are broadly fine. Nothing is dramatically wrong. So why go looking?
Perhaps because the clues are already there.
You keep returning to the same abandoned idea. Something apparently trivial gives you far more joy than you expected. You achieve something important and feel surprisingly little. You keep saying, “I’m not really the sort of person who does that.” Or one part of your life looks successful from the outside but still feels strangely empty.
These are not diagnoses. They’re clues.
Your life is constantly leaving clues about what matters to you.
The question is whether you notice them.
Perhaps some of the renewed interest in social, offline activities is simply people following those clues without describing it that way. They want to be around people. They want to play. They want something regular. They want somewhere to belong. They want to be present.
Maybe the old balance was the unusual one
We sometimes talk as though the return of these activities is nostalgic. Maybe it is, in part.
But perhaps the stranger period was the one in which so much of our identity became tied to work.
Previous generations often had more obvious structures outside employment: clubs, sports teams, neighbourhood groups, family routines and regular social gatherings.
There is no need to pretend the past was better in every way. But those structures gave people repeated contact with others and a sense of identity that had nothing to do with a job title.
Perhaps we are rebuilding some of that in new forms. Not because people have suddenly become old-fashioned. Because some needs were never old-fashioned in the first place.
A more balanced identity may also be a stronger one
If your whole identity sits in one part of life, changes to that part can be devastating.
If work provides status, friendship, purpose, structure and identity, then losing the job can mean losing far more than income.
But if your sense of self also comes from friendships, health, relationships, creativity, curiosity, contribution and play, then one part can change without taking everything else with it.
That doesn’t mean caring less about work. It means having more than one place to stand.
And in a world where work itself is becoming less predictable, that may be increasingly valuable.
Recognition comes first
Perhaps meaningful reinvention doesn’t always begin with a dramatic decision. It may not begin with resigning, moving country or starting a business.
Maybe it begins with noticing that you are inexplicably happy every Tuesday night at roller skating. Maybe the hour you spend helping someone learn something feels better than anything else in your week. Maybe you miss making things. Maybe you realise that work still matters deeply to you, but you have been asking it to provide things that belong elsewhere.
The scale of the change can come later. Recognition comes first.
Perhaps the real opportunity in this rebalancing is not to make work matter less. It is to make the rest of life matter enough.
That is the thinking behind JB Reinvent™: not simply asking what should I do next?, but understanding what actually matters to you, why it matters, and what a life built around that understanding might look like. Explore JB Reinvent™
If you are beginning to notice some of those clues in your own life, we can start with a free 15-minute conversation. Book a 15-minute conversation
References and further reading
1. Gallup (2026), State of the Global Workplace — Europe. Employee engagement in Europe: 12% engaged, 73% not engaged and 15% actively disengaged.
2. Deloitte UK (2026), Gen Z and Millennial Survey 2026. Work-life balance is the top career goal for UK Gen Z and millennials; the survey also examines wellbeing, leadership and changing career priorities.
Explore further
JB Reinvent™ — jb-reinvent.com
Who Am I Allowed to Become? — explore the book on JB Reinvent™
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