Thread by @doctorow

You've probably heard a lot about how robutts are coming to steal your jerb, but even a cursory look at both employment stats and the state of automation tell a very different tale.

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A pair of essays from @SareetaAmrute, @mawnikr, and @brian_callaci from @datasociety take a deep dive into the reality of precarious employment and its relationship to automation.

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In "Why Are Good Jobs Disappearing if Robots Aren’t Taking Them?" the authors blame the disappearance of good jobs not on automation, but on the ability of apps to circumvent employment law (the gig economy).

points.datasociety.net/why-are-good-j…

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Tech also simplifies the process of outsourcing to low-waged, poor workers overseas, and surveillance and real-time predictive tools allow employers to shift the costs of slow business times onto their workers.

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We hear a lot about how economic downturns prompt investment in automation, but the authors don't find that. Rather, "firms restructure in response to downturns in ways that create fewer permanent job opportunities than in the past."

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Crises allow for permanent changes in employment norms: " What is at risk now, is that the management techniques of gig companies will become protected by U.S. law and embedded in the national economy."

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There are few robots on the horizon in the US workplace: "The rate of productivity growth has been slowing, not accelerating, in recent years...At the same time, investments in capital equipment, information processing equipment, and software have been slowing since 2000."

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On to part two: "The Robots are Just Automated Management Tools": the hallmarks of the modern workplace are "Surveil, Schedule, Speed Up" and all three are supercharged by tech.

points.datasociety.net/the-robots-are…

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Consider how workplaces use scheduling software to dynamically and unpredictably assign shifts in 15-minute increments, while equipping workers with trackers that monitor their every move and software accelerates the pace of work.

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It's cost-shifting, from employers to workers: workers have to be on-call 24/7 but are guaranteed no work; the breathing time a stock-picker in a warehouse gets before picking up an item is squeezed out by a light beam that skewers the item as soon as they are in position.

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But the authors hold out hope for worker power, as the realization that "essential workers" are the lowest-paid, worst-treated among us gives workers a newfound sense of their power and the public a newfound respect for their work.

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"In short, the robots are coming, but slowly, and not in the ways they are often portrayed. What’s actually happening is that precarious work is becoming more visible, while management software hides the changing the nature of working conditions."

eof/