Proponents of BPO suggest cost-shaving.
Proponents of Automation remind us machine doesn’t take breaks, holidays etc…
Proponents of re-shoring boast the hiring of locals and more taxes to the public coffer.
Proponents of post-Covid era advocate not the return to 9-5 habit.
Workers themselves feel like a yo-yo: school one’s self, train one’s self only to see jobs shipped overseas, then back in different forms and regions wherever the political wind affords them tax breaks. In between, chip set and chip speed have religiously followed Moore’s Law to double every 18 months or so. Hence, devices get smaller, wages shrink and a new industrial complex reemerges on this side of the pond, unrecognizable (WeWork? Indeed).
Who is correct? Who is responsible? How could skills acquisition on Main Street keep up with shorter expectations and cycles on Wall Street?
The answer is You 3.0. Long ago, I presented “You 2.0” i.e. self-leadership, based on studies of success models of Past people, companies and countries (T-formation)…
While I might not be wrong all together, I missed a huge point: the world is changing much faster than our speed of thought. More people, younger, are joining the workforce. More willing and able. More eager to discard “old” models to adapt and adopt new ones, mercilessly. It’s as if You 2.0 finally is put to rest (Rabbit at rest) at an early retirement age. You 3.0 have to deal with foreign workers, emigrant and immigrant workers, and machine workers.
Diversity and inclusion now means working with others not of the same mindset, skillset, but also with machine, which takes no smoke breaks, no holidays and Labor Day. The job of how to make sense, and optimize productivity given the time frame and new structure at work should be cause for concern to everyone. Can’t leave it to leaders to decide the ratio of man-machine at a given work setting. Phasing in and mixing them up etc… Science, Technology and Society. Often times, technology gets adopted first at work, then home. Not to mention ESG (the new ticking point, then counterpoint).
I noticed more private airports, private boats and private security apparatus; stuff once belonged in elite domain. Imagine private golf course in our backyard. Might not be unthinkable, now that deck and swimming pool have been widely adopted. As we share work space (virtual and casual), recharging stations etc.. we might as well invest in private domain e.g. home office, home gym, home charging station, energy generator and home entertainment.
You 3.0 sees a merge of public and private sphere, made possible by faster computing power and more leisure time. It’s up to us to keep up or cash out. Remember, machine also has no work dignity. It just does, as instructed. Agnostically, automatically and for the lack of a third A, arrogantly (“I don’t need breaks, holidays, Labor Day and what not”.
In the future, at some point, we might not have and be given this Labor Day as holiday.
First, they invent the wheel. Then the steam engine, then the flight…..workers were honored once a year, often falls on a Monday, called Labor Day to rest, to shop and to spend. Good luck in the future.
Thang Nguyen 555 