What Will the Future of "Work" Look Like?

When I was at the supermarket yesterday, I noticed that they were doing some remodeling near the front of the store.

I asked Rachel — who has worked there for over 25 years — what was going on. She said they were expanding the "self check out" from six terminals to twelve. Meanwhile, the number of "full service" checkout stands would be reduced to just five and a couple of "express" checkouts.

It really got me to thinking about how the entire nature of what we call "work" is changing, as automation takes over more and more jobs.

The people at the supermarket who will no longer be needed to check out customers will not be reassigned, because there's no longer anything for them to do there. The more senior people will probably be "invited" to take early retirement... the remainder are pretty much out of luck. And they won't be able to just go to a different store, because I see the same thing happening, all over the place.

And we're still only on the front end of the wave of automation.

Soon enough, we'll have delivery trucks and drones that drive themselves; fast food restaurants where most of the service is provided by automation and even the food cooked by robots; medical diagnostics will be done by "med beds" rather than nurses and medical technicians; financial analysis will be automated, as will bookkeeping.

Maybe that's cool, but the people who no longer have those jobs will have no place to go. And yet? They still live in apartments where they have to pay rent, use electricity and phones that cost money, and eat food that costs money.

How will we make these equations work out, in the future?

The more I think about it, the more I have a feeling that there will come a point where we no longer have "employers;" instead every person becomes their own business with a particular set of skills that gets hired by companies to do specific jobs on a "gig" basis.

People will work as much as they feel they must or want to, based on their particular skill set and ambition level. Most likely, we will all "make a living" from multiple income sources.

I imagine communities like Steemit will be one source of income for some people who are focused on the so-called "attention economy." You might not make a living with it, but the monthly contribution of $50, $100 or whatever to your income stream simply becomes part of the overall picture.

Regardless of how it all turns out, I feel pretty sure that in 50 years from now we will barely recognize what people think of as "working!"

Thanks for reading, and have great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? What do you think work in the future will be like? Do you currently work at something that puts you at risk for being replaced by automation or AI? What are your plans for the future of your work life? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20211005 23:45 PDT
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