Jul. 30, 2018 "An office worker is more replaceable by AI than a tradesperson": Today I found this article by Eileen Dooley in the Globe and Mail:
What makes for a career today? For many people who are mid-career now (in their mid-40s to early 50s), there are entire job categories today that never would have been considered as a viable career when they were starting out. Similarly, there are job categories that have or will soon disappear as progress marches forward.
In between those leading and trailing edge careers lies a considerable number of job groupings, each with their own concept of a “career.”
While we often might think that only white-collar office workers and professionals can really follow a defined career path, there actually are a number of hands-on trades and traditional blue-collar roles that deserve to be looked at more closely when people are making decisions about their career futures.
Skilled trades, for example, are seeing aging work-force numbers and job vacancy rates that are making some of these professions more attractive for younger workers who want to combine their intellect with hands-on roles, and potentially command a premium salary in the process.
Unfortunately, social attitudes toward the trades have often meant that hands-on workers are assumed to be in these roles because they didn’t have other career options.
Indeed, some readers might remember their parents warning, “Get an education or you’ll wind up working in a trade” as a stimulus to get that university degree. Today, however, the lines between being a skilled tradesperson and occupying a professional role are blurring continuously.
A refrigerator repair person running a computer diagnostic to find out what’s wrong with your appliance requires technological proficiency and problem-solving skills on par with or exceeding that of an office worker.
Indeed, it seems probable that a general office worker is more readily replaceable with an artificial intelligence program than that repairman (even accounting for futuristic robots making house calls). Who really has more job security moving forward?
In 1992, Robert Reich had just published his book The Work of Nations prior to becoming then-U.S. president Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labour. He concluded that the old social contract around work was broken: There would be very few lifetime careers with the same company. Instead, he predicted many workers could now expect to have dozens of jobs during their working lives, potentially across two or more different career paths.
That volatility is the new norm and quite often the choice to jump career tracks is purposeful. People seeking new challenges or going through transition opt to retrain or reinvent their skills, or strike out on their own.
In a return to the values of craftsmanship, some choose working more with their hands – in roles that require physical skill more than acumen with word processors, websites or spreadsheets.
Where would we be without some of these trades? Many of our key resource industries would grind to a halt without welders, plumbers, electricians and many more roles that build the infrastructure upon which we rely. Same goes for those many repairs around your home, where few of us have time or skill to tackle a troublesome freezer or replace a furnace.
It’s perhaps an indication of the skill appreciated in some of these roles that we accept a four-hour service window as pretty much the norm. In contrast, when was the last time your dentist told you that your appointment would be sometime between 9 and 12, and just stay in the waiting room until he or she deigns to arrive?
The dramatic cave rescue of a trapped soccer team in Thailand also highlighted a whole cast of specialized trades that often go hidden. There were military and civilian divers who skillfully executed a rescue amid the treacherous confines of a cave system and fast-moving muddy water (at risk of life and death). There also were pump specialists, who found ways to keep water levels in the cave low enough to attempt a rescue.
Until we see the valuable roles these jobs play in a pinch, we’re largely unaware of their daily contributions.
So, next time you’re thinking of what you might want to do in your second or third career, or even your first, don’t immediately dismiss those hands-on trades: Many are coming back, and with more complex skills than you’d imagine.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-redefining-career-status-an-office-worker-is-more-replaceable-by-ai/
CitizenWhoPaysTaxesNotTaxPayer
I am a plumber. I served my apprenticeship in the late 70's early 80's. I left and got a degree in IT in the early 90's and in the mid 2000's came back to my trade.
Trades are not for dummies. Trades are a good career that can provide a good solid income and if your unionized a good solid pension and benefits to fall back on.
I could see that people in their mid to late 40's could not get hired in IT. In the trades you can work till you want to retire so when I knew my current contract was ending I made plans to go back to the trade. It has worked out well. I combine my IT skills and my trade skills all the time. I usually make 6 figures a year and have pension and benefits on top.
In addition I found that IT was simply a white collar sweat shop. I had an interview once where the guy said to me and I quote " We have a 37 hr work week but everyone works 50 hrs a week so we don't mind if you take an hour off every once in a while to go to the dentist" I turned down the job offer.
I personally work in trades as an Industrial Instrument Mechanic (now called Measurement and Controls Technician).
Those that think ‘trades’ are a low end career have not kept up with the reality of trades.
Our field of work is in demand, growing and cutting edge.
If people don’t want to be replaced by AI, get a job building and maintaining it.
If not, no worries. I like the job security provided by the high demand for people in my line of work.
I work with electricians to install, wire, commission and maintain industrial control and automation systems.
A very technical trade involving work on PCs, RTUs (Remote Telemetry Units), PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) and a myriad of other devices in a fast paced and ever changing environment.
We are the ones creating the automation systems that allow industrial systems to operate with a minimum of manpower.
If people don’t want to be replaced by AI, get a job building and maintaining it.
If not, no worries. I like the job security provided by the high demand for people in my line of work.
"If people don’t want to be replaced by AI, get a job building and maintaining it." Unfortunately your line of work creates less jobs than it makes obsolete. But you go ahead and keep feeling smug for what you do for a living.
And you keep pretending trades aren’t a ‘real’ career.
I’ll just keep going to work every day to a 6 figure career.
I’ll just keep going to work every day to a 6 figure career.
What, artificial intelligence and robotics will soon render millions of jobs obsolete in Canada because the jobs will be done by computers and machines?
Okay, so how long do we have to wait for an opinion column in this newspaper wondering if it is still a good idea then to keep having one of the highest immigration rates in the world?
Will we ever see such an opinion column?
Okay, so how long do we have to wait for an opinion column in this newspaper wondering if it is still a good idea then to keep having one of the highest immigration rates in the world?
Will we ever see such an opinion column?
Thanks for this article - about time !
Regarding what is it about time?
It is about time ‘trades’ were recognized as the solid career move they really are.
A robot capable of repairing a plugged toilet hasn’t been invented yet and it won’t be any time soon.
My opinion: I find trades to be a respectable career. However, I just find it boring.
A robot capable of repairing a plugged toilet hasn’t been invented yet and it won’t be any time soon.
My opinion: I find trades to be a respectable career. However, I just find it boring.
"Bro contact has me feeling left out": Today I found this article by Rob Walker in the Globe and Mail:
Q: I work at a blue-collar job, and I am one of four women in a crew of 40. The guys never touch or harass me, or any of the women, as far as I know.
They do, however, constantly hug and grab and bump each other in a friendly way. It’s not unusual for one of the guys to go through a whole short meeting (a stand-up “huddle”) with an arm around another guy’s shoulder.
No one ever touches me, and it’s not that I want anyone to. That would be weird. But I almost feel left out. Should I let this “bro contact” bother me?
– Mary
A: It can be irritating or even troubling to feel left out at work – even if whatever you’re being left out of doesn’t appeal to you.
“There are a lot of ways to feel excluded,” said Eden King, a psychology professor at Rice University. “And a lot of them are non-verbal.”
Informal social rituals such as happy-hour gatherings and the office Oscar pool can improve an office’s culture – unless they leave some people feeling that they just don’t fit in. At worst, this can become a “coded way of excluding people,” said Dr. King, who directs a workplace diversity research group at Rice. “’We don’t want people like you because you don’t fit our culture’ can turn out to mean ‘you’re not our race, or our gender.’”
The classic example is golf: If you don’t play and your boss bonds in career-shaping ways on the links, that can be a problem.
The good news is that it doesn’t seem as if your colleagues are trying to exclude you. In fact, they seem to be behaving respectfully, and they probably don’t suspect their “bro contact” might be bothersome, and almost certainly don’t intend it to be.
Think about whether it might help to look for other ways to feel comfortably included. Since you’ve described a sociable workplace, consider conversational or topical gambits: joking, shared hobbies or interests, talk of sports or family or whatever feels right. Don’t consider this an obligation, but rather an approach that might make your days more enjoyable.
Any worker should be tuned in to the office culture and if some element of that culture interferes with her job, she should talk to a manager. But if that’s not the case right now, it’s better to focus on connection and inclusion. “If she can find other ways of being friendly with her co-workers, that’s going to serve her well,” Dr. King said.
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