Automation, A Killer of Human Employment

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Written by

JLoberiza

I'm still here! Check me out also in https://noise.app/jloberiza

1 year ago

In community: Just Write(e5e5)

Topics: Technology, Automation, Fast Food, Employment

December 20, 2022
Article Number 248

Two weeks ago, we went to a local franchise of McDonald's in our area. It's been a while since the last time we went to that popular fast-food chain. I was surprised to see a major change in that fast-food restaurant. I remember there were three or four cashiers when they first opened that branch. Now, there is only one.

There's only one cashier for this branch.

Across the lone cashier, are two pairs of gigantic touch-screen monitors. At first look, you will mistake it for digital displays showing their menu. However, when I examined the content of the screen, they were more than just menus. They are not just displays. They are interactive screens where the customers can select their orders before they go to the cashier to pay the bill. The system even accepts electronic payments.

Greetings once again, my dear friends and readers. When I was studying in Cebu City for college, I remember that fast food chains like Jollibee and Mcdonald's employ a lot of college students as part of their crew. Not only do these students receive financial benefits through their salaries, they also get trained. Some of them later rose to the ranks to become supervisors and eventually managers in one of the fast food chains.

A Funny But True Story

In one of these fast food chains, the branch manager called a supervisor and introduced a trainee. This supervisor was one of the pioneering working students when that branch opened. After working in the branch for maybe a couple years, he became a supervisor.

Let's call this supervisor Dexter.

Manager: "Dexter, this one of our new trainees. Take care of him, will you? Give him something to do"

Dexter: "Yes, Ma'am!"

It wasn't a busy day. Dexter paused for a while. He can't think of any tasks to give to the trainee.

After a short while, he thought of one and told the trainee what to do. The trainee obliged without question.

A few minutes later the manager returned and saw the trainee putting the tube ice one by one into an ice bucket. Puzzled, the manager asked

"What are you doing?"

Trainee: "Sir Dexter told me to inventory the ice, ma'am."

Manager (holding her laughter): "Dexter!!!!"

Employment

These fast-food restaurants hire dozens of employees per branch. Cashiers, kitchen crew, food servers, and others. Maybe a branch that opens from six in the morning to nine or even midnight probably will have two to four dozen crew each day. probably more if the branch is open 24/7.

Just imagine if there are at least five branches in a city. That means a fast food chain employs at least a couple of hundred people. That's a great help in reducing the unemployment problem in the country.

Automated Ordering System.

I am not sure what the official name of their system is, but I will call it Automated Ordering System for now. Whatever the name of the system is, however, the effect is still the same.

The four interactive systems replaced human cashiers. If there were four cashiers per shift before, now there is only one. Meaning, three employees per shift were dropped. That's at least six people added to the unemployment list. This is just a small branch. How many people have lost their job in a bigger branch?

This is just one of the numerous cases where humans were replaced by machines. In the past, assembly lines of electronic devices like TV are composed of thousands of humans. Now the assembly lines are composed of machines.

In Closing

Automation is not a bad thing. They could help a business run more efficiently. Computers and machines can do the work of a human ten times or even a hundred times faster with less or even no errors. That's efficiency.

However, people are starting to lose their jobs to machines. If people need to work to earn money, what work would be left to them if their jobs are taken over by machines? How will people earn?