Monday, May 07, 2012

More Tech Fallout

One thing that I see very often in my office, that our nation and our government is struggling to deal with, is how the fantastic new advances in technology is changing everyone's lives and minds.  We act differently, we think differently, we relate different, and certainly every business in America works differently because of the digital changes that have happened just in the last five years.  I date the latest major transformation to 2007, when the iPhone first went on sale.

For many people the new technology has made jobs easier, or even just made them possible.  People can, and do work from everywhere.  But so many people are being put out of work, and so many are just not necessary.

The latest to come into my office is an angry 37 year old man who has been wit the company for 11 years.  Which company; the phone company. He knows, but he won't really admit, that they just don't need him any more.  He is an installer and repairman for land lines.  The landline business is fading as quickly as the video store rental business.  The phone company could probably get by with about 1/3 of the workers they have.  It is only the union that keeps hanging on.

But, the phone company, being a big corporation, is using technology to get rid of the people.  They have GPS systems tracking their every move, they send the workers out with hand-held devices that report back as each task is done, each job is started, each is completed, and how quickly the worker moves from one to the next.  Then they raise the expectations of what is expected in a day.  Then they raise them again.  Then they get on the worker for not meeting expectations.

Stress, conflict and misery.

My patient knows his time is limited and he should learn new skills and find his way in the new world. Instead his fear and uncertainty is turned into anger at the company.  The company would probably do better to take him and many of his colleagues and retrain them.  Teach them to deal with wireless technology.  Teach them how to operate the cloud. At least give them the opportunity.

But that would involve using skills that most big corporations don't have. So, things will end badly, and more people end up in my office.

And so do their families.

1 comment:

Forsythia said...

It just makes you want to kick someone. Occasionally you still hear of a company that takes care of its workers. Corporations may be "people" but they're all brain and no heart.