Woot's: Everything Has Changed Part 2: The Workforce

I'm skeptical. Lucky for me, I'm not the only one. But to set up this blog, I want you to meet someone , but I also don't want you to get overly excited about it. This is a 'coral-bot'. A robot that can 'swim' to the benthic and repair damaged corals.

But, that's MY job!!!!! Kind of my job seeing that I really don't get paid to do it. BUT, I don't have to pay to do it either so it all works out (I will soon write a post about all that we are doing on my Ocean Science blog). I've seen some of the videos of this 'bot in action and I can't quite figure out how it works. So I really don't think that scientists are going to rush to buy these. Which give me at least a little while longer.

It does, however, bring up an interesting point that seems to be representative of the how the world is changing. People are becoming obsolete, and with them, their jobs. Along with education, this is one sector that I believe is rapidly shifting and creating situations that we may not be thrilled with. And I believe it all came to a head in 2008.

If you remember, in October the stock market fell sharply on the heels of a failed bank bailout vote in the house. 401K values plummeted, corporate profits fell, and the overall strength of an overall weak economy waned. This was followed by massive job losses as corporations looked to mitigate their losses by slashing costs. And we have been saying things like, "not in this economy" and "when the economy gets better", since then. It's been this way for so long that, by all accounts, this just seems how it is.

However, there is another side of the story. One that you may be hard pressed to believe. As I am writing this, the DOW closed at it's highest level.....ever and corporate profits are at record highs, all with un-employment hovering around 7.5% or so. In other words, corporations simply do not need the workforce they used to. Why would they? When we are forced to make do with less, we find ways to prosper with less. This goes beyond the mantra of when times are tough, you go into survival mode. But it would be naive of us to think that big time corps would be satisfied with just getting by.

According to the pundits, there are two main reasons for this. I mentioned one earlier. Corps have simply realized they can do more with less. I'll speak more on this in just a bit. The other reason is that the FED is buying bonds and propping up the market fueling this bearish market that we are seeing. And all indications are that this isn't likely to end any time soon.

But what does this mean for us. Much like education, there is reason for excitement and a little apprehension, all depending on how you look at it. If we think with the old mindset, we could end up very disappointed in the direction our lives will go. We simply cannot think that the old skills, old ways, and old rules apply or are adequate, because they are not. It is highly likely that a robot could take my job of repairing coral reefs away. What am I going to do about it? Now there will always be the need for labor jobs.....right? Technology is 'driving' a lot of jobs into oblivion. One of the largest investors in driver-less vehicles are shipping companies. Mining companies are starting to implement this new tech. Warehouses use floor-bots to cruise around stock and fill orders, then pack and ship the container. No humans needed. So you can see, tech is the driver of this change. So how to we succeed in this changing world.????

I don't know. One thing is for sure though, we have to find a way to make ourselves valuable....somehow. The workforce will reward those innovators, the ones that push for more, better, faster more efficient ways of doing things. We've seen that less is now more. Just be sure your are deemed worthy when the editing starts.

And I will leave you with this.......

Today on NPR I heard a story that embodied this dynamic workforce. You may not know that the Senate passed a bill that would force online retailers to start charging sales tax for purchases. Now for companies like eBay and Amazon, no problem. In fact Amazon came out in support of this. But what about smaller retailers? This was the focus of the story, and it happened to highlight one from my home state, specifically, Gulf Shores, Alabama. Click the link for the audio and transcript. But I want to focus on one particular statement.

When the owners were asked how the collecting of sales tax was going to affect them, this is what they said.

"WILDER: I think it's going to be a tremendous burden to us. Our bookkeeper is very good at what she does, but she's not very really knowledgeable in other areas of computer usage, though. So that's going to be a steep learning curve. And the fact that the CPAs charge, you know, lawyer type rates, we try to do as much in-house as we can before we pass things off to them."

Don't be that bookkeeper! Be able to adapt to the RAPIDLY changing times. That will be one sure fire way to become obsolete.