I saw how my Fortune 500 company could increase productivity with software we already owned but were under using. (My boss said, “you’ll be the first one I lay off.”) Many jobs were done by people that could have been done with the press of a button. As more companies introduce enterprise resource programs the number of needed staff will continue to drop. Those companies that fail to do this will be eaten by the leaner companies. I suspect that technology is the biggest unemployment driver, aided by labor laws that make it necessary to eliminate as many jobs as possible.
Dang —if it’s not one thing it’s another!
> I suspect that technology is the biggest unemployment driver
Nah, let’s call it “lack of ability to adapt to changing conditions”
Sounds like a large scale version of SCETV here.
Years ago when I was there we filled out handwritten timesheets. My handwriting is on par with the typical epileptic chicken and the poor HR lady would call me two or three times to clarify stuff.
A friend of mine made an excel template of the time sheet and when printed looked good enough to fool the HR. Even the catbert thought it was a good idea.
My friend was not an excel guru and neither was I but I did the simple formulas. There were a few approved test runs. Figured it would be accepted and things would be better. It wasn’t a glory thing, just make life a little better.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I hear from my friend since I was out a few days. He got an angry threatening memo from catbert and I had the same waiting on me.
The gist of it was my friends supervisor (the little redhead harridan) took it upon herself to announce agency wide that it was for everyone. She got none of the blame somehow especially since it was her that sent the announcement and didn’t offer to say a word on our behalf. Why catbert chewed us, I could never get an answer for. Needless to say it died.
People liked what we made and were disappointed to see it die.
I finally left. My friend is still there close to retirement. The little redhaired harridan was fired a few years later for who know what. It depended on who you asked. No sympathy from me.
While technology plays a huge role, outsourcing to Asia is big; besides sending jobs there, we are importing them here. I see a huge increase in the number of Asians in the financial sector, every one of them stealing an American job. They are less needed in finance than in tech (which is hardly at all); many Americans did these jobs for decades, but for better wages.