Re: Substituting computers for people LO3
Keith Cowan (cowan@pci.on.ca)
Fri, 3 Feb 1995 12:37:05 -0500 (EST)
K.C. Burgess Yakemovic wrote:
> While I may be wrong, I suspect that the list members have, as a group,
> characteristics that would make them ill suited to copy clerk jobs. But
> we must be careful about rearranging the world so that all the jobs need
> to be filled by people like us... because all the people _aren't_ like us.
>
> Some didn't finish high-school. Some can't read. Some may have learning
> disabilities... or physical disabilites. Maybe they're in the "average"
> catagory... finished high school but have no college or vocational
> training. If we aren't careful there will be a few jobs for highly
> skilled,educated people... and some jobs requiring manual labor, but no
> "thinking"... and no jobs for the vast number of people who fall "in the
> middle", ability-wise.
There is a group of futurists who claim that the pace of technology WILL
put semi-skilled people out of work - receptionists and operators replaced
by voicemail, secretaries by PC/WP, file clerks by disk management software,
etc.
This means that those who do not have the aptitude or attitude for picking
up new skills will be unemployable in sufficient numbers.
All the more reason why the building of L-O is critical to enable
continuous reskilling rather than downsizing...Keith
> K.C. Burgess Yakemovic kcby@mindspring.com
> Group Performance Systems phone/fax 404-395-0282
> 4776 Village North Court,
> Atlanta GA 30338 USA
--
Keith Cowan Phone: (416)565-6253 FAX: (905)858-7131
Toronto Internet: cowan@pci.on.ca Compuserve: 72212,51