Andreas Weck: The performance debate, AI job anxiety & what remains of New Work

Do we need to work harder again – or just talk about work differently?

In this episode of narrative now, host Max speaks with Andreas Weck: freelance journalist, speaker, and consultant, former head of the working world department at t3n, former Silicon Valley correspondent, LinkedIn Top Voice in the DACH region, and a long-time observer of the New Work debate. For years, Andreas has followed how companies have talked about meaning, flexibility, self-determination, and purpose – and since becoming self-employed, he has experienced firsthand how work can be reorganized.

Together, Max and Andreas discuss the new debate on performance: return-to-office mandates, layoffs, cost pressure, more authoritarian leadership, and political statements about whether work-life balance and the four-day work week are endangering prosperity. Andreas explains why some New Work promises sound hollow today – and why modern forms of work are not simply going to disappear. After all, the shortage of skilled workers, gaps in childcare, high part-time employment rates, and new realities of life cannot be communicated away with a simple "just work more."

Naturally, the conversation also covers AI and the widespread fear of job loss: is the AI job apocalypse really coming? Andreas disagrees with the narrative of mass unemployment and explains why jobs are more likely to change than disappear. Max and Andreas discuss why tech companies often use AI to justify layoffs, why communications roles in the AI industry are suddenly in high demand, and what all of this reveals about the new narrative of work.