Why does modern work feel so dissatisfying? Are we making the mistake of searching for the ‘why’ of modern work when we’re desperately in need of answering ‘how’?

If we were inventing jobs today, we’d struggle to come up with something engineered to be as dissatisfying as employment in the early 21st Century. Endless meetings where we start to forget our own name and emails that seem identical to those we got rid of yesterday, all done against the drone of vast open-plan offices.

I’ve spent the last two years researching and writing a book about improving the modern workplace culture – and what I observed was a shocking reminder of what needs fixing.

The challenges with modern workplaces go beyond distraction into something more substantial. The Mental Health Foundation says that 74% of Brits felt overwhelmed by stress at some point last year, with work being the biggest cause.

It’s no wonder. Since we all started taking emails on our mobile phones the average working day has lengthened by two hours. By some estimates, workers who are expected to stay connected to their colleagues are clocking up over 70 hours plugged into the office each week. Half the people who add a couple of extra hours to the working day clock up the highest recordable levels of stress.