HBR Staff/mediaphotos/Getty Images
Summary.
There’s a tidy story out there when it comes to automation: If anyone felt its bite, it was workers in manufacturing and trade jobs first. The advent of the mechanized loom pushed weavers who worked for themselves into factories. After Ford trotted out the assembly line, skilled mechanics and engineers had to learn to go through rote motions. Eventually, support staff in offices experienced a similar fate. When networked PCs arrived, clerical and administrative workers saw their jobs shift from interacting with people to filling out software forms and checking boxes. All too many of them paid less. All too many build fewer skills. All too many treated with less variety, human connection, and dignity.