Apply Now!: Fictional Job Postings as an Instrument to Discuss Interactive Futures of Work

Design fiction provides us with a variety of ways to explore potential interactive futures. In order to reflect on the future of workplaces, we created fictional job postings for the context of production facilities. This context is characterized by many constraints, which are often hard to overcome when envisioning the future of interactive practices in such environments. With the fictional job postings, we triggered discussions with stakeholders from a production site and with the public -- which both resulted in highly controversial debates. In this note, we present the evolution of an exemplary job posting and the reactions it evoked. We then discuss our learnings (e.g., that the degree of fiction is essential) and conclude by reflecting on how this instrument facilitates the exploration of prospective interactive practices at work.

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