Employment

IT in the workplace have evolved a lot in the last 40 years, it used to be that almost none was integrated in employment, people would have done jobs that now computers and machines can do much faster and in a more efficient way.

Evolution of IT in the workplace

An office in the 70s would consist of no IT, instead of computers it would have typewriters, instead of “Microsoft Spreadsheet” would have physical paper and graphs to do calculations. Mechanical and physical attributes of an office have now been entirely replaced by the PC, even filing cabinets in older offices have been phased out due to the digital upgrade so all files are kept as a document on a hard drives or even put on a storage cloud so everyone can access it from the internet. However, so attributes can’t be changed because of our physical being, such as chairs.

Hundreds of other jobs have evolved greatly thanks to IT, such as the postman where signature are given on a computer pad to make handing out post more efficient than before. Furthermore, factory lines have changed greatly due to advances in robotics and engineering, this includes mechanical arms to put together products, and one of the only jobs done by humans is  simply checking the products for any faults and obvious mistakes and even this job is starting to be done by computers for cameras and lasers to measure produce.

Replacement the worker

A massive down side for all of these advancements is the replacement of physical workers. This is very apparent for factory workers where machines have taken over making the products all that id left is checking them, this replacement has reduces the amount of available jobs greatly because IT can simply do a  better job at a fraction of the cost. Although the factory worker is being phased out, the upkeep of the these machines requires mechanics and IT technicians which in turn has raised the amount of jobs available for that sector whilst attracting more people to train for it as the job will pay better then working on a n assembly line.

Skilled labourers are becoming less common as less demand for them has meant less people training for it, this is all due to IT advancements, and this can mean jobs like construction are less prominent for people. However, a job like sewing isn’t changing much as places like sweat shops are still being used to create clothing for the western market; furthermore, companies like apple assemble their products in china in sweat shops, paying the working a very little amount for hours of work. This could be seen as an upside of IT taking over jobs because it will get these people out of cramped and unhygienic conditions to then get a better paid job.

Creating jobs and Making jobs easier for the worker

Many jobs have been made significantly easier by advancements in IT. For example, the postman has been given a GPS to find the easiest route for delivering mail, similarly in large warehouse like Amazon’s, a computer has been implemented to show collectors the best route to get groups of orders to send off. What is more, retail workers jobs have been made easier by the electronic till where they simply scan in or press the product being bought and then charge the buyer the amount on screen.

The vast developments in IT have led to the creation of thousands of new jobs, this is jobs such as a computer programmer where they can be employed to create and uphold website and applications. Call centres are one of the largest sources of work in the world, hundreds of companies pay overseas callers to work for them and  answer support calls from customers all while simply pressing a button and asking or answering questions on screen.