A recent visit to Bentonville, AR revealed that Walmart moved its test products/experimental store from there to Dallas because home office employees were overinfluencing its results. Many years ago, I observed a large entertainment company's effort to have white collar workers complete one 8 hour shift, mostly in food service & janitorial roles. The desk occupants all complained of back, joint, etc. pains the next day. Ever notice how the skills gap prevents the customer-facing roles from taking over even 1 hour or 1 day of the white collar roles? There's plenty of stress and cognitive exertion when wooing & negotiating with Martha Stewart, or other big brand names, or conducting demand forecasting; few people outside of that process can even imagine what it involves. Those jobs, their management teams, global forces led to Kmart's demise. Surprised that the last one survived this long. More AI & robots & self-service will fill the retail stores' roles (plus food service and others); AI & robots need human sentinels. Evolving, adapting, innovating, shrinking & swelling will continue as they always have. I don't see anyone crying over the loss of all the horse & buggy-related or landline phone-related job roles; new motorized vehicle and digital communication-related roles were pioneered. Finally, a reminder that publicly-held companies primarily exist to create value for shareholders. I challenge you to find any for-profit organization's mission statement saying that it exists to create human jobs.
A recent visit to Bentonville, AR revealed that Walmart moved its test products/experimental store from there to Dallas because home office employees were overinfluencing its results. Many years ago, I observed a large entertainment company's effort to have white collar workers complete one 8 hour shift, mostly in food service & janitorial roles. The desk occupants all complained of back, joint, etc. pains the next day. Ever notice how the skills gap prevents the customer-facing roles from taking over even 1 hour or 1 day of the white collar roles? There's plenty of stress and cognitive exertion when wooing & negotiating with Martha Stewart, or other big brand names, or conducting demand forecasting; few people outside of that process can even imagine what it involves. Those jobs, their management teams, global forces led to Kmart's demise. Surprised that the last one survived this long. More AI & robots & self-service will fill the retail stores' roles (plus food service and others); AI & robots need human sentinels. Evolving, adapting, innovating, shrinking & swelling will continue as they always have. I don't see anyone crying over the loss of all the horse & buggy-related or landline phone-related job roles; new motorized vehicle and digital communication-related roles were pioneered. Finally, a reminder that publicly-held companies primarily exist to create value for shareholders. I challenge you to find any for-profit organization's mission statement saying that it exists to create human jobs.
"Ever notice how the skills gap prevents the customer-facing roles from taking over even 1 hour or 1 day of the white collar roles?"
Love this!