Work is one of the greatest issues of our time, an all-encompassing social fact and a world of paradoxes – there is both too much of it and not enough, at a time when artificial intelligence is replacing people and their jobs, while employees’ lives are increasingly diminished due to longer working hours and a loss of autonomy. The announcement of the end of work as we know it and the predictions of what has been termed a new ‘post-work’ society have not yet led to a suitable response at the political level nor in the customs and habits of the entire social system. However, the idea that it is necessary to reinvent work and how it is distributed to eliminate the increasingly relentless contrast between an elite and a huge mass of the unemployed, precariously employed, intermittently employed and temporarily employed is gaining ground. The current pandemic and its related circumstances have reinforced the idea of smart working and working from home, which, although operating within the framework and according to the rules of a system that has been dysfunctional for a long time, may be the beginning of a radical transformation. The issue of work, a diverse topic that covers many areas, is the ‘subject’ of this issue of Electra.