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Student in the Laboratory, Lancaster University
Lancaster University
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Will you be replaced by robots or be treated like a robot at work?

Poll

Will robots replace these job roles in the future?

This week's poll is multiple choice :smile:

Amazon’s employees in the US have been demanding better work environment, and recently they have also started to push for unionisation.

In the UK, ambulances were called 600 times to the company sites between 2015 and 2018 due to unsafe working conditions despite healthy and safety regulations.

Amazon employees in the US feel they have been treated like robots. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, two giant online retailing platforms - Alibaba and Jingdong, have been using robots to pick up and deliver items.

It is claimed that the self-charging and wifi-equipped robots have saved 70% of manpower in Alibaba’s smart warehouse.

Some benefits of robots and automation:

β€’

Cheaper to employ

β€’

Not requiring safe and ethical workplace conditions

β€’

Streamlined processes, which quicken production

β€’

Simpler to manage (potentially eliminating the role of trade unions)



Some drawbacks:

β€’

Make humans obsolete (see self-service checkouts)

β€’

Reduce human interactions, which is vital for our health

β€’

Might bring on the short term high levels of unemployment

β€’

Can potentially take over a variety of jobs (e.g. news reporters, drivers, cashiers, etc.)




What does this mean for future employment? Are you worried about getting a job in the future?

Do you have a specific job in mind that you think might be directly affected by the use of robots or artificial intelligence?

Which roles do you think are most at risk of automation?
________________________________ ________________________________ _____________

Dr Yu Fu is a Senior Teaching Associate at Lancaster University, and she is the Programme Director for the Management & Human Resource, the Management & Organisational Behaviour, and the Management & Sociology. Her research interest lies in international HRM, particularly national cultural factors in employment. The main focus of her research is to investigate the impact of Chinese cultural values on the Western Transnational Corporations’ HR policies and practices in their Chinese subsidiaries.



Dr Lara Pecis is a Lecturer in Organisation Studies at the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology at Lancaster University Management School. She is also programme director for the Management and IT degree. Her teaching and research include the role of technologies in shaping organisations and their impact on people. She is also interested in questions of inclusion and diversity in management.
(edited 5 years ago)

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Reply 1
I lost my part time job 10 yrs ago to a robot [or some new "system" management put in place]

It's already happening. Jobs like in Amazon's warehouses are next on the line for automation

It will lead to a lot of unemployment. But honestly, Amazon treat their employees like absolute sh*t [i've heard a lot of bad things about them]. Unless the people they let go get evicted or starve they won't be shedding any tears about loosing that job...

Virtually All jobs imo will eventually have some computer or robot be able to do it. Some will just take much longer than others...
(edited 5 years ago)
Student in the Laboratory, Lancaster University
Lancaster University
Lancaster
Visit website
Original post by ANM775
I lost my part time job 10 yrs ago to a robot [or some new "system" management put in place]

It's already happening. Jobs like in Amazon's warehouses are next on the line for automation

It will lead to a lot of unemployment. But honestly, Amazon treat their employees like absolute sh*t [i've heard a lot of bad things about them]. Unless the people they let go get evicted or starve they won't be shedding any tears about loosing that job...

Virtually All jobs imo will eventually have some computer or robot be able to do it. Some will just take much longer than others...


Yes, it is already happening in many sectors (from law to manufacturing) and at different levels of automation. Would this mean trade unions will be playing an even more central role?

How can we make sure incoming managers change the current work conditions you have outlined?
This change in automation will be a really fundamental change in society, it will replace the vast majority of jobs, and unlike the Industrial Revolution, it's highly unlikely a new kind of jobs gets created. I think it will cause a lot of unrest in the future and even rebellion. I mean once you replace your workers you still need people to buy your stuff, how can you do that if the majority of people are unemployed... Monopoly capitalism is outdoing itself, and it is only a matter of time before the contradictions manifest completely.
(edited 5 years ago)
:rofl:
we gotta stop them :fight:
Reply 7
Original post by Lancaster University Guest Lecturer
Yes, it is already happening in many sectors (from law to manufacturing) and at different levels of automation. Would this mean trade unions will be playing an even more central role?

How can we make sure incoming managers change the current work conditions you have outlined?



Managers these days are very focused on targets and squeezing the most out of their workers.

I have worked a similar job to the one at Amazon in the past and it was SOUL destroying. Managers do not care. It's all about targets. Everything is timed right down to the second. They are constantly looking for new ways to squeeze more out of you too. They come round everyday telling you your "rate", telling you to hurry the f**k up ..whilst they've been sitting in their nice comfy office all day with a cup of tea. I was so sore from lifting after the first couple of weeks [delayed onset muscle soreness] that I needed to take a day off when the schedule said I was to work 6 days that week. And ofcourse that gets you an absense ...and at 3% absense Management offically launch an "investigation" into you......

The only way of getting through to them and to get them to stop treating people like machines would be to go on a mass strike or something and hit them in their pockets until it makes more sense for them to relax working conditions than miss days/weeks of profits
Reply 9
Anyone who didn't answer "All of the above" is in for a rude awakening twenty-odd years from now.
I would quite happily wager Β£500 that twenty years from now an offshoot of Google's Deepmind program will be performing complex surgical procedures autonomously.
Reply 11
It would be so heartless in terms of communication and there are studies to show that how the diagnosis/prognosis is communication can have a positive or detrimental effect on the patient.

There doing trials on the moment on robots that administer chemotherapy which limits the amount of nursing time.... I think it's just so sad. In a care setting you need actually need care and tenderness that only a human can give.



That's really interesting, why do you feel it's inevitable?
Original post by itsismael
This change in automation will be a really fundamental change in society, it will replace the vast majority of jobs, and unlike the Industrial Revolution, it's highly unlikely a new kind of jobs gets created. I think it will cause a lot of unrest in the future and even rebellion. I mean once you replace your workers you still need people to buy your stuff, how can you do that if the majority of people are unemployed... Monopoly capitalism is outdoing itself, and it is only a matter of time before the contradictions manifest completely.

But you also need people making these robots...is it just about changing the skills we are trained for?
Much talk about a third revolution, the digital printing revolution, are we just in the middle of it and what will happen to capitalism as we used to know it?
The manufacture side of design might become more automated but the start of the design process never can be as you can't replicate creativity with a robot.
'Gardening' is a funny one, although lots of people call stuff gardening, it's pretty much a professional role like plumber or electrician and requires a LOT of skills. It's mainly a knowledge/decision making role so the main limiting factor for automation is most likely AI development/cost. (not that people won't be still working on it)

The real ones who are getting it in the neck are the grounds maintenance, farm labour and nursery workers...they're the ones with the highly repetitive roles and automation is making great strides there, I've had tours of some seriously impressive robotic facilities and feel it's not so much cost as the fact that well designed automation can complete tasks with a speed and accuracy people simply can't match. As you say, robot mowers are a big thing in development, closely linked to battery development, adoption of batteries by local authorities for green work is my main uni topic so ill be away to talk to all the councils and manufacturers and i suspect a desire to develop and move to robotics will come up more than once.

I suppose automation is a large reason I returned to uni, I worked in grounds maintenance toting a mower or strimmer of some sort and enjoyed it fine, but the progression is crap and you're very aware of national cutbacks and a push for efficiency, so i've returned to uni in an attempt to transition from a mostly physical worker to a knowledge worker and get ahead of the curve of skilled VD unskilled.
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A man walks up to a construction site foreman in the street.
He says "This is outrageous! If it wasn't for your digger, ten men with shovels could be doing that job!"
The foreman replies "And if it wasn't for your shovels, 100 men with teaspoons could be doing this job."



Computers are good at anything whereby outcomes can be defined in un-ambiguous objective terms, many of today's jobs are indeed easily measurable in entirely objective terms because they are wholly prescriptive - for example, a lot of clerical jobs are all about administration and following rules so it's easy to imagine a scenario where all of those are replaced entirely by automated processes. However, this completely ignores the fact that humans need to be involved in the first place before the automated process can ever exist because they're the ones who invent the rules.

Automation has been happening for a long time and usually resulted in better efficiency, accuracy, reliability, safety, cost-saving and human assistance but has never managed to replace humans altogether - the humans have simply moved from being the ones who are doing the work to those who create, control, maintain and monitor the automated systems. Fewer humans are needed to control an automated system, but that just means we can increase productivity by having the same number of humans being able to get a lot more done by delegating all the real work to the automated system.

Of course, we could easily imagine some kind of dystopian future where an AI becomes so smart that it replaces all human leadership, control and decision making, but I can't really imagine humans would either want or accept such a scenario - one thing we know is absolutely true about humanity is that people desire control (at least over their own lives if nothing else), so barring the Skynet/Terminator scenario, humanity itself is always going to be making sure that it is in control of its creations, with computers merely doing the work as well as providing input/feedback which help its controller/leader make better-informed decisions.


Realistically I'd imagine humans are likely to be increasingly involved in jobs based in the process of creating and maintaining automated systems as well as analysing the information made available by those systems to make decisions. For example, the construction site foreman of the future could still exist, except s/he is more likely to be an engineer and architect who takes the time to understand what needs to be built, monitors the construction systems in case something needs to be adapted, knowing how to modify and program the system so that they can get the job done properly and on time.
(edited 5 years ago)
I suppose, I just don't think robots can be creative because if it's robots being creative I think it loses the meaning of creativity, only humans can be purely creative , also design work is a lot avabo inteeractivng with a client and being sensitive to their needs something which I think a robot would struggle to do and if I was a client I would sooner interact with a human, I think manual things are at a lot more risk of automation than the creative sector
Reply 18
Dunno, don't particularly care.
Original post by itsismael
This change in automation will be a really fundamental change in society, it will replace the vast majority of jobs, and unlike the Industrial Revolution, it's highly unlikely a new kind of jobs gets created. I think it will cause a lot of unrest in the future and even rebellion. I mean once you replace your workers you still need people to buy your stuff, how can you do that if the majority of people are unemployed... Monopoly capitalism is outdoing itself, and it is only a matter of time before the contradictions manifest completely.

I agree with you, however, some people also argue that robots can only replace tasks, but not jobs, no humans. For examples, the ATMs are everywhere, but the banks are still hiring people to provide quality service for their customers, in order to grab more market share from their competitors.

It is also claimed that some jobs, such as receptionists and telemarketers, will disappear as technology evolves. We might not be able to stop the evolution of robots and AI, but we are able to prepare and choose our future career path.
(edited 5 years ago)

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