DB FPX 8410 Assessment 5

Introduction

In February 2020, businesses all over the world had to adjust to a new way of working in order to continue running their businesses. COVID-19 forced businesses to innovate, keeping their workers productive. Some businesses were able to redirect most of their employees to remote working, but others implemented a more hybridized schedule. Every business had to identify essential employees who have to be retained on-site. Human resource departments needed to take the major decisions to offer equity and continue operations.

The world had to look beyond the traditional office operations. Converting existing staff into remote workers was a challenge, but converting recruitment and training into a virtual environment was an even bigger challenge. Hiring new tech and adapting traditional procedures allowed for an easy transition for most companies (Nagdeman, n.d.). This paper will examine the influence of current trends on the future of work, including the challenges that will shape the future of the American workplace, the pandemic impact, the use of robots and artificial intelligence (AI), and the pros and cons of the future.

Issues Shaping the Future of the U.S. Workplace

Social Issues

Socially, it is now the norm for office workers to move towards working from home. While it is good for employers and employees, there are social implications of this transition. Employers are facing an increase in all sorts of burnout. 86% of full-time work-from-home employees are experiencing burnout (McCain, 2022). Some of the reasons for such burnout are working under pressure to put in more extra hours than in the past, lacking support from the employer, and experiencing increased stress. Remote workers are generally unable to establish a line of demarcation between work and personal life, with the end result of working longer hours because work is around them. Burnout is just one of the issues that are being encountered by employees. A serious impact on the mental health of remote workers has been observed. Employees who traded office work for working from home experienced a 67% rise in loneliness (McCain, 2022).

Among the individuals who claimed to feel lonelier, 12% indicated that work quality decreased due to loneliness (McCain, 2022). If remote work increases as a trend, employers stand to lose from low morale caused by reduced productivity. Additionally, society’s trend towards experiencing more mental issues is likely to increase due to remote work’s psychological effects. A change in the consumer behaviors of individuals, such as more shopping online and getting food mailed to them, has already begun to take effect. Food delivery service firms and online food delivery companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash have reduced the impact of individuals being exposed to social environments. Face-to-face social interaction will be adversely affected by this trend. The more remote workers we have who also shop online and order food delivery, the fewer face-to-face communications there will be, and the more digitally oriented social lives we will have.

Technological Issues

Advances in technology have made it easy to work remotely with technology using real-time audio and video communication. The more companies adopt a more digitized workforce via technology, the more automation will replace many human jobs (Parikh, 2021). Despite the coming of automation, there remains a necessity for human interaction with machines, bestowing human productivity with a new shape than we have seen so far (Parikh, 2021). Machines still require the human touch. Hence, there will always be a job but of a different nature.

It is projected that 50% of the workforce will need to be reskilled by 2025, since automation will necessitate a shift of job functions (Parikh, 2021). Through reskilling and redeployment of the workers, there will be a transition from technical to innovative work requiring more strategy and creativity (Parikh, 2021). The skill and job shift in the workplace due to automation will likely cause some college students to change their career goals and seek different majors. Technical degrees may eventually decline as careers such as UI/UX designing become more prevalent with the demand for creative thinkers.

Ethical Issues

With the transition to a more automated workplace, ethical issues will become more prevalent, thereby increasing the importance of ethics in the workplace (Weinstein, 2021). Technology advances faster than almost anyone can keep up with, so there will need to be an increased sensitivity for only advertising and employing honest and responsible employees in order not to have security violations because hackers will know more about technology than the managerial staff. The other ethical aspect to be mindful of is the attitude of telecommuters that they must be working constantly. Employers will be forced to think more creatively about how to peddle a work-life balance. It is immoral to make the employees work extra hours just because they are not working in a physical office environment. Even though that may not be the objective, it falls to the employer to ensure it is not taking place because workers feel like it. If there is no ethical focus on this issue, companies will see higher turnover and unemployment rise as employees burn out and depart without other work. Future ethical concerns may shape the workplace and society as a whole.

Impact of the Pandemic

As the pandemic struck around the world, many employers were able to send employees home to work. Now, approximately 26% of American workers are remote workers, and there is expected to be continued growth by 2025 (Flynn, 2022). At the peak of the pandemic, the number of remote workers was much higher. However, around 66% of American workers are currently working in a hybrid setup, part-time in the office and part-time at home (Flynn, 2022). The pandemic expedited remote working as companies maintained productivity when employees were at home, proving the model to work. Nearly everything about the workforce has experienced further automation and application of robots at the expense of workers (Lee, 2021). Even such work as collecting money from toll booths is replaced by electronic payment systems.

Robots were added to the majority of assembly lines during the pandemic because that was a logical decision when Americans were cooped up in their houses due to quarantine. In the first quarter of 2021, North America (basically the U.S.) experienced a 20% increase in robot orders (Lee, 2021). A number of employers are compelled to turn to robots and other technology for automation since they are unable to find people who are ready to work for less pay (Lee, 2021). Another trend that emerged from the pandemic is a greater emphasis on well-being and mental health (Rooney, 2021). The majority of people around the world felt more stressed out during the pandemic. The World Health Assembly recommended in May 2021 that governments contemplate incorporating mental health support during emergency planning, for instance, in the case of the pandemic (Rooney, 2021).

Increased Usage of Robots and AI

More use of robots and AI in the workforce would benefit companies in terms of efficiency. All these shifts in technology will still need human intervention since they will still need to be monitored and maintained. There are going to be some losses in jobs with the emergence of robots and AI. But all of these jobs have turned out to be difficult to staff recently because they are not very well-paying, and most individuals are looking for better pay. Matt Tyler is the CEO at Vickers Engineering and uses robots and AI to supply auto parts and has 200 employees (Lee, 2021). New positions were created for his company’s employees, such as engineers who will be specifically working on automation (Lee, 2021). Robots and AI will positively impact the company since they will become more efficient. It will also positively impact society since products will be faster and more accessible. For example, the lack of so many items during and after the pandemic could have been reduced by robots and AI.

Pros

Robots and AI save companies money because they are cheaper than human labor (Barden, 2022). Aside from salary, employing robots and AI will not cost the company benefits; employees do not call in sick, and robots do not sleep. There is less opportunity for error when employing robots and AI (Anch, 2019). With technology improving, these machines become better and continue to reduce errors.

Cons

There are also drawbacks to putting robots and AI in the workplace. Robots and AI only perform as well as the code that is in them, so they can’t make decisions in the spur of the moment when something isn’t working (Barden, 2022). Most robots still have some human element, so companies will be forced to pay some employees, not completely eliminating their payroll (Barden, 2022). Another consideration is the loss of human capabilities and absence of creativity (Anch, 2019). The absence of creativity of AI would simply result in making incorrect decisions, which would be an issue for a business (Anch, 2019).

Limitations

Robot and AI limitations are the human element. These technologies cannot think independently and adjust when circumstances change. This limits their potential; thus, humans have to be involved with the automation process these devices offer. Programmers and engineers have to be utilized to maintain the robots and AI, and humans have to be involved too in order to control the operations in the event something changes or breaks down and the robots cannot cope with the situation well.

Universal Basic Income, Guaranteed Federal Job, and Reduced Work Week

A universal basic income is where the government provides each citizen a fixed amount of money on a monthly basis. The rationale behind this concept is to put most citizens on equal ground income-wise. One of the benefits of this concept is that there is less stigma when receiving government benefits such as food stamps and welfare (Gaille, 2019). If there are stipulations on who is qualified to receive the payments, it would encourage people to keep working while they receive the payment (Gaille, 2019).

Most Americans are forced to just manage as they work or quit work and depend on government assistance, making it easier for them to manage. The concept could hurt employment since people would take advantage of the situation and choose not to work at all (Gaille, 2019). It would not completely eliminate financial disparity since there would still be significant differences. The concept would make it easy to increase the government’s debt (Gaille, 2019).

DB FPX 8410 Assessment 5 The Future of Work 

The federal employment guarantee concept considers employment an unalienable right (Congressional Research Service, 2022). This is based on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Economic Bill of Rights (Congressional Research Service, 2022). One positive aspect of this concept is that it would eliminate unemployment. One potential negative aspect is the government would carry more debt, and rivalry between the public and private sectors for workers would be an issue.

A reduced workweek is where companies reduce their employees’ hours but pay them for the whole week. One potential benefit is increased worker productivity (Prater, 2023). Another benefit is workers will experience less burnout and improved work-life balance (Prater, 2023). The disadvantage of the concept is not being able to implement it in most businesses without compromising their business needs (Prater, 2023).

Conclusion

Many trends indicate a massive shift in the workforce and the work that people will be doing. Technology has encouraged an increase in remote work, changing the social dynamics of the workforce. Automation will continue to encourage companies to employ workers to manage the robots and AI. Where there is job loss from robots and AI, there will be some, but there are already many firms that are unable to fill low-paying jobs, and so the loss will not hit hard the people who would otherwise have been working. Although the workforce of the future appears different, the changes can actually cause benefits.

DB FPX 8410 Assessment 5 The Future of Work 

McCain, K. (2022). “8 Things To Know About Burnout When Working Remotely.” BetterUp.

Nagdeman, J. (n.d.). “The Digital Transformation.” Forbes.

Parikh, R. (2021). “4 Factors Shaping the Future of Work.” Forbes.

Prater, N. (2023). “What Are the Pros and Cons of a Four-Day Work Week?” HR Cloud.

Rooney, K. (2021). “Future of Work: The Pandemic Is Reshaping Work for Good, Hitting Fast Forward on the Future.” CNBC.

Weinstein, B. (2021). “Remote Work Raises New Ethical Issues for Managers.” Forbes.