How You Became Expendable As A Worker

Before becoming a self-employed person, I was a long-time employee of several companies in two countries. I was lucky enough not to be terminated from any of the companies I worked for.

But looking back now, I realized that all the companies that I have worked for could have easily terminated my employment. I could fool myself into thinking that my position was safe because I was not a temporary, contractual or a probational employee.

But I know now deep in my mind that being a full-time employee does not guarantee that I would forever hold my job. All the companies that I have worked for could have simply said that I was not fit for the job anymore.

This is the only reason that they need. It’s as simple as this. If they wanted a more sophisticated reason, they could say that my job has been made redundant by company reorganization or has been downsized.

So as you can see, this is how easy anyone can lose their job. As far as my life experience is concerned, this has been happening since the 90’s and even earlier. But a lot of things have happened since then that are a cause of concern.

You might think that you are safe because you are working for a company that respects the longevity of your company position, but think not only of yourself but of the future employment career of your children and grandchildren.

Humans have been continually learning how to make their tasks more easier by making them more efficient and faster. Humans are becoming more and more productive as they invent new tools and processes.

As humans become more productive, they change inefficient tools and process and replace them with more efficient and faster ones. Unfortunately, one of the tools and processes which humans use is other humans.

Humans are in fact the first machines. Humans became more efficient and replaced human labor with animals, next with manual machines, next with mechanical machines, next with electrical machines, and now with electronic machines.

The pinnacle of human efficiency would happen when humans have finally replaced human workers with robots that can almost act and think like humans. This is already happening at a fast rate.

Many office and factory workers have been replaced by machines and computers. From simple labor jobs such as cleaning jobs to very sophisticated jobs such as welding car chassis together.

Office jobs which were once heralded safe from electric and mechanical machine takeover are fast being taken over by electronic machines. Simple human tasks like cashiering to very knowledge intensive jobs like scientific research have been taken over by computers.

There’s no guarantee that you won’t be replaced by electronic machines or any machine for that matter. Humans especially business owners simply earn too much money from making their businesses more and more efficient.

If you think that humans especially business owners would have a great awakening and realize how many people are now living substandard lives because of the effects of automation, better think again.

The name of the game in business is efficiency. The more efficient a business is, the more successful and profitable it becomes. To many businesses, human employees are just another inefficient asset that is costing them a lot of money that needs to be replaced.

If you are still working in a company whether you are holding an office or a manufacturing job, assess your job security. Are you researching the developments in your line of work? Is there a machine or a computer that can now do your job?

If there is and you see that this machine or computer is expensive, do not think that your job is safe. As the production of products become more efficient, their price also exponentially goes down. You may find yourself soon being replaced by a very cheap machine or computer.

As far as computers taking over human jobs, many employment experts like to state that computers are good at doing complex repetitive tasks at very high speed. This is their great advantage over humans.

Humans simply make mistakes or get bored when doing repetitive tasks that make them very inefficient in doing jobs best suited for machines and computers. That is why many employment experts advise that people stay away from jobs where you do repetitive tasks.

In fact, many employment experts actually advise that people should do creative jobs. A software program for example can potentially replace all the office jobs in a company, but the same software program could not replace the software programmer which programmed it.

Another example would be writing jobs. Although a lot of IT companies have tried to make AI softwares to emulate the tasks writers do, so far they have been unsuccessful. There are softwares that can produce works of writing, but so far not one has been able to surpass the skills of a common writer.

You might be thinking that someday a writing software would become so sophisticated that it would rival the mind of a common writer. That day might come, but at least for now, there are still a lot of jobs even online for human writers.

Writing, drawing, composing and all other kinds of creative jobs have continued to thrive even during the age of computers and automation. These kinds of tasks are still more efficiently done by humans rather than by computers and machines.

There is simply too much money needed to automate these creative tasks and business owners simply do not have the money to invest or are unwilling to gamble their money producing computers and machines that may or may not be able to duplicate the creativity of humans.

The same goes for handyman jobs. Human house and building painters are now being slowly replaced by computerized machines. There are now actually huge machines that can build the entire concrete foundations of houses.

But the job of electricians and plumbers are still safe from automation. These two jobs are in fact one of the highest paying jobs in the blue collar job field. But besides these jobs which computers and machines cannot replace, there are still automation resistant jobs that people could do.

Garbage collectors are one of the people I think about who are safe from automation. I have seen the way garbage is collected from both developed and developing countries. I can say that house to house garbage collection and processing is too complex to be automated.

This is because garbage cannot be properly handled and sorted out by machines and computers. How does a machine process a garbage bag full of decaying food? No computer can process this, but even a common man would know how to process decaying food.

So far I have been painting computers and machines as bad for humans. But you might be misunderstanding me or might have missed a point I made: Business owners greatly benefit from automation.

Computers and machines are a sure threat to your livelihood as an employee because they might replace you, but they are very useful to you if you are a business owner. I as an author has greatly benefitted from automation.

I now produce books and directly sell them to numerous online bookstores globally. When during the old days I would have needed human publishers and other human middlemen, I only need now my laptop and an internet connection.

I sure hate the fact that a lot of people became unemployed in the field of publishing when selling digital books became automated, but computers have enabled unknown authors like me to sell books which used to be impossible during the old days of printed only books.

Have you gotten my point? My point is that computers and machines are very hard to beat, but are excellent servants. You should strive to make the most out of them. That is why I strongly encourage you to master the use of computers and other machines.

Computers and machines would never be truly independent of human operators no matter how advanced they become. They would always need humans to maintain and upgrade them. Isn’t it any wonder that one of the most stable jobs are those where humans maintain and upgrade computers and other machines?

Right now in America, there is a shortage of workers that perform machine maintenance and upgrading. Automobile mechanics are one of the group of workers where there is a great demand for. Their salaries have slowly been rising because of the great demand for them.

This mostly affects people from developed countries. The Internet has made many jobs available online. Many office jobs from developed countries are now fast being transferred to developing countries.

The call center jobs of many developed countries for example are being transferred to developing countries whose people are very fluent in english. People who used to earn a well paid developed nation salary now compete with people who are willing to do their job for a fraction of the salary.

This is bad news for people in developed countries, but good news for people in developing countries. If you are a person living in a developed country and doing jobs mostly handled by computers, you should be aware that someday a person from a developing country might replace you.

If you think that just because you do jobs that don’t require a lot of computers you are safe from the globalization of jobs, think again. Many labor jobs from developed countries have been transferred to developing countries in such continents as Asia and South America.

China used to be a developing country but has since become a developed country when manufacturing jobs and companies were setup in their country to the detriment of manufacturing workers from developed countries.

Is it any wonder then that service jobs have risen in many developed countries as well? This is because the manufacturing jobs in many developed and developing countries have disappeared.

In the olden days, the governments of countries used to support the manufacturing sector a lot. But ever since countries especially China has cornered the market for manufacturing, many governments have changed strategies. They now focus on service related industries.

Can a hotel employee who looks after guests be replaced by computers or workers working from overseas? Of course they can’t be replaced. Could a stewardess be replaced by a machine or a worker working from overseas? Of course they can’t be replaced.

This is assuming that your government does not allow the hiring of contract workers from overseas. When I lived in Australia which was a developed country, the issue of overseas contract workers was a big issue.

There were many overseas contract workers in Australia who did a lot of jobs meant for Australians like engineering and construction work. I can understand the engineering jobs because there could be engineering skills that an Australian cannot supply.

But construction skills? I don’t believe that it’s impossible to find Australians who have construction skills. In Australia’s case, foreigners from developed countries are doing jobs that can be done by ordinary people in Australia.

This is one of the problems of living in a developed country. Your country is a magnet for overseas contract workers who are willing to do your job for lesser pay. If you think that your job is safe because you are cheaply paid, think again. There is always someone willing to do your job for lesser pay.

Another thing that people from developed countries should look out for would be competition from skilled and unskilled migrants who are willing to do your job for lesser pay. There are many companies in fact who hire migrants not because of diversity, but for monetary concerns instead.

It is a well known issue that in the US, many tech companies hire new migrants who are highly skilled in IT because they are willing to accept lower pay and longer working hours than their local counterparts.

But not only highly skilled migrants, many unskilled migrants are also willing to accept lower pay and longer working hours because not many companies in their new country are willing to hire them.

It is very unfortunate that in the quest of humans to become more and more efficient, they have made a lot of other humans expendable. Computers and machines might replace repetitive jobs but humans can still fight back by doing creative and more complex jobs instead.

Workers from developed countries not only have to deal with computers and automation. They also have to deal with competition from workers of developing countries in the age of globalization where the border regulations of countries are fast coming down.

Forced to Retire Because of Your Age