The Future of Work: but not as we know it

By the MotherMind Doctor

Will ours be a digital world like in Tron?

In the week that recognises World Mental Health Day it seems pertinent to look at the workplace which dominates much of our lives.

Recently Australia’s banking sector hinted at what the future for employees will be like when ANZ slashed 3500 jobs along with 1000 contractors and NAB cut 410 roles with its restructuring move.

The shift to more offshore work signals how digitisation and AI are already rapidly changing the way we work with less need for support teams and a ‘polarisation’ of the market. In this situation, the middle level of clerical, operational, administrative and technical work is shrinking.

On the receiving end of this change, there is a frustrating knock-on effect of not being able to talk to a human when you have a banking question such as when I tried to change my Westpac password and was given the run around: from online to phone message to being cut off with no solution– all because they are changing their password system.

AI offers reduction in error rates and cuts costs but the human factor is missing when when the bot is not as intuitive or functional enough to answer our human questions and we can’t speak to someone.

Banking is not unique as AI tools handle all sorts of processing in retail, insurance and now healthcare.

This shift towards more technology ironically adds to the level of administrative tasks for our already overwhelmed lives. How many emails do you have to wade through every day in order to ‘clear the inbox’ of items that are irrelevant, advertising, or related to administrative work? And how long does it take out of your day?

We are currently living in a digital world in which technology was supposed to provide a way to streamline our systems and work for us. Perversely, we now need to further adapt to the system in order to be able to work. Now, not only do we have to re-train to get work but when we try to interact with the system we are forced to think like a bot.

What is the system there to achieve if not to serve us?

The benefit can be seen at the top in efficiency gains for corporations. And it seems they largely ignore the need for psychological safety in the workplace because soon there may be few staff left in the middle to need it. This also applies to the right to disconnect. The more legislation put in place to protect the worker, the more ways the worker may actually end up being sidelined because it is onerous and costly to comply with.

Unless you can be a manager or a manual labourer, the future of work is narrowing. However, if you are tech savvy and keen to work in cybersecurity or digital design, your work future may still hold promise.

And what of work-life balance you ask? Good question!

SMH article reference: by Shumi Akhtar, Future of work? It’s already arrived. Just ask ANZ staff