Paying homage to the labor movement yesterday was a worthy
act. We can and should honor the movement every day. We all have benefitted
from unions.
Having said that we must recognize that 2020 is not a year
to celebrate. This is a year of job loss and fundamental reinvention of work. Jobs
held in the past will look different going forward.
Some people have managed to continue working through this
pandemic. They are very fortunate to have employment. Their jobs may be focused
on standing objectives, but what they do and how they do it is much different
than what they did before the pandemic. Nothing has been left unchanged.
Working from home is the most obvious change from the old
norm. Employers have learned their employees are productive and creative
working from home. In many instances employees have actually performed better
than before. Invention and creativity have been proven.
Teamwork answered the call for collaboration, too. Building on
strengths of others makes team achievements astonishing. Melding personalities
is not easy, but it is a must. Pulling together for common goals is fundamental
to the process. Subjugating the personal takes getting outside of the self and
into the group’s aspirations. It requires transformation.
But what about manufacturing, assembly and so many other job
functions? If workstations can be separated and safely navigated by workers, then
healthy functioning can move forward. This requires altered floor plans and
layouts. Re-engineering the workplace has been done at many sites but more is
needed. Robots are unaffected by the pandemic as long as the supply chain keeps
the parts arriving on site. It is the assembly of those smaller parts that is
the problem. Again, changing assembly operations to healthy workstations is
part of the answer.
Refashioning manufacturing on the largest scale imaginable
is an enormous job. In the early days of the pandemic most of us thought this
was a temporary condition soon over. We were wrong. The pandemic has stretched
to many months and threatens to strangle our economy for a year or more. Meanwhile
damage has been done and we recover from that as best we can in the short term.
Fresh investment in new methods of working and creating within
our economy is required. That is now the job needing to be done. How many of us are
doing just that?
Are we inventing the new tools, the new products, the new
methodology and operations to support a totally refashioned economy? Some people
are; some are not.
I worry about pure human activities that have been shut down
completely. Restaurants and bars come to mind. Barber shops and salons are
another. But retail shops of all kinds are yet another. The personal point of
service is the keystone of our economy. Scale of operations expand from there.
Online retail transactions have filled in beautifully. But
think of the support jobs that make that happen. Product still has to be made
to be sold and shipped. People have to perform the inventory, the stacking on
shelves, the retrieval of goods to satisfy the order, the shipping and packing
of orders for delivery. All take people. Automation helps greatly, but people
are still need. Think Post Office. The mail still needs to be collected,
sorted, re-sorted and sorted yet again. Then routes are manned and mail is
delivered.
Computerization will continue to address many changes. People,
however, are still needed in most phases of every business. The work will be
different. The challenge of change will always be present. We are called upon
to adapt. And to invent.
How do we teach? How do students learn? What makes us smile?
What motivates our yearning for anything? What lifestyles do we aspire to? What
of entertainment and the arts? How are these done, experienced and delivered?
All these things require different modes to produce desired
outcomes. Are we up to the challenge of inventing those modes?
Welcome to 2020 and the work we have yet to do!
September 8, 2020
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