Research Paper: Automation in the Workplace

In today’s society, there have been many changes that have been happening to many businesses. The development of new technological equipment keeps reaching an immense number of factories and industries. Automation in the workplace has become more common than usual. Thus, automation in the workplace does rely on technology from something small as an automated message machine to a car assembly line. The research Automation in the Workplace mentions that “proponents of increased automation in the workplace note the potential of these technologies to save time and money, improve safety conditions, and standardized output and input,” which is true but is at the expense of peoples’ jobs. Anyhow, advancements in the world of automation in the workplace and technology have facilitated many activities in what constructs society today which is affecting us in many ways. While workplace automation helps develop more products at a faster rate and gives us a better quality of life, many people are being affected by losing their jobs to a machine, which is happening on a regular basis.

Consequently, automation in the workplace has caused a huge impact on our society. Business owners often rely on technological automated items or systems created by their own company to work without any flaws and run smoothly.  For example, now we have cars that drive themselves, have an automatic braking system, and people can program them to a certain speed limit. Likewise, the complexity of these creations is great, they are easier to maneuver, give us extraordinary safety features, and have a mind of their own. However, there are many problems that come along with the creation of these technological features that we entrust with our lives. We often rely on technology and automation in the workplace so much that once it malfunctions, we have the tendency of going back to the mindset of what am I going to do without it? This is a problem many people face, especially in the work environment. Before, we had people specialize in-car electrical systems and have them run inspections hands-on when it came down to a more complex problem in a car, and now, we have car mechanics or technicians that use machines to diagnose the problem of your vehicle. This is very eye-opening because what if one day the car decides that its automatic car system fails, and the individual was solely relying on it to work and, suddenly, this person causes a car accident because the brake system did not activate on the right time. Moreover, there are many issues that come along with relying on technology, especially if it is built by an automated machine.

Above all, automation in the workplace and technology has helped us thrive in our current society. In the state of Florida, Amanda Yesilbas played a key role when it came to an organized electronic resource librarian at the Florida Center for Library Automation. The author of this article, Melanie Thomas states that “Yesilba presented information on how she used Drupal, a free open-source content management system, to organize database elements, such as vendor records, license contracts, and statistics data,” which is very important to maintain the databases organized because they carry a lot of important and useful information that could help many people start their own project or learn more information. One of the most frequent issues that we face is the replacement of people for machinery. In the article “Artificial Intelligence can Spark Job Growth,” the author Joseph M. Newhard states that “workers are replaced by machines when it is efficient to do so, resulting in greater output and lower costs,” which in fact is a smarter way to the problem, because this helps lower the cost(s) of the final good(s), it causes an increase in wages for the people who will be consuming those goods and an improvement in the quality of the product. Although this may be true, many people declare themselves bankrupt due to the long process that it takes to apply for a job now, because the majority of the applications are through an online website, and so, by the time they call people back for an interview, people have either already found a job or are in a big debt due to the lack of people checking through these automated systems and sorting through applications. This happens more often than people think. For example, during the pandemic many people were jobless, and this led to online shopping or working from home, which affected many people working in retail or in the restaurant industry, and this led to adding more online automated customer service. Automation in the workplace in many ways keeps impacting our lives, but this is enough of a reason to entrust it and decide whether or not it can be used for our future or our downfall. 

This process has caused new jobs that have emerged into our society, but at the same time, it has caused problems with the misuse of these machines and technology. Peculiarly, some jobs may need more actual human beings to attend to problems or inconveniences. For instance, when people go to their local grocery store or supermarket, they have noticed, that there are fewer cashiers and more self-checkout registers. This caused a big job reduction because now there are fewer cashiers to attend to issues that only an actual human begin can resolve due to their responsiveness to problem-solving matters. However, this facilitates more open registers and fewer long lines of customers to check out their groceries or items. This caused another problem because now more people are getting away with stealing items due to the lack of supervision and they might be losing people who may be interested in becoming loyal members in their store or to even opening an instore credit card. Thus, the research “Boy Cries Wolf; Automation” states that “Humans are not just an input; for many goods and, especially, services they are the output too,” if we carefully analyze this statement, technology or automation can provide many services but only people (human beings) can determine the quality of a product. Have you noticed that automation in the workplace can only inform you of the product but not the quality, and that is because they do not have an actual acknowledgment of such things? Another problem is that they cannot determine whether or not a piece of equipment or item is being used to its maximum potential or quality. The usage of automation in the workplace and technology impacts us in different ways and our future can be affected as well if we are not careful with how far we want to take the development of these machines. 

Another problem that our society faces is the large output productivity of items by machinery. In the article “Higher Productivity is Good for workers: Automation not Withstanding,” the author Robert D. Atkinson mentions that “estimates of the impact of these technology occupations show that there is a significant negative correlation between the average wage of an occupation and its risk of automation,” which means that this new wave of innovative machinery will be automating lower-wage jobs than in the middle and upper class, making this an issue. Another example of this situation may be when people work at a restaurant, and they have a dishwasher machine rather than having an actual human being take care of the job. However, the managers are doing is dividing the work between serving and cleaning, rather than hiring another person to take care of drying the dishes and putting them away, which causes overwork of people in the restaurant industry. But to maintain their employees happily, they give them a minimal raise which is better than no raise at all. Although this is an occurring problem, this has also created another job such as a dishwasher technician, for different dishwashers, there are different technicians that specialize in more specific ones. Sometimes in certain restaurants, there are robots that have taken over the waitress or waiter job, and those robots are capable of taking orders. However, sometimes people start noticing malfunctions and so now the restaurant’s owner has to hire a robot technician to make sure the robot has no systematic issues. And this created more job openings for robotic technicians and is a resourceful way of using automation in the workplace in our favor. 

Thereby, automation in the workplace and technology usage has impacted our lives in many ways. As we advance into the future, workplace automation and technology also progress for the greater future or the downfall of peoples’ lives. The usage of these machinery opens ground for a lot of technicians, robotics, engineering, etc. Whether we use it for good or bad, the decision is in our hands. There are many solutions and job openings that technology has opened for us just as it has caused many people to lose their jobs as well. The author Evans-Greenwood et al. state in the article “Reconstructing Work: Automation, Artificial, Intelligence, and the Essential role of Humans” that “efficiency gains come from specialization, which allows workers to become better and faster at a given task through practice,” which is an intelligent way of using it. Otherwise, without the same automation in the workplace or technology, we cannot move forward as a society. Therefore, it is important that way stay informed and up to date with the way automation in the workplace is advancing. In conclusion, studying technology will save us from a misleading future that could harm us in many ways.