‘Robots’ Are Not 'Coming for Your Job'—Management Is

[GURPS]

And yet, here’s a quick sampling of headlines from some prominent media outlets:

• “Smart robots could soon steal your job” - CNN
• “White-collar Robots Are Coming for Jobs” -Wall Street Journal
• “Yes, the Robots Are Coming: Jobs in the Era of Humans and Machines” - Wired
• “Are Robots Coming for Your Job? Eventually, Yes.” -the New York Times
• “The Robots Are Coming, and They Want Your Job - VICE
• “Robots Are Already Replacing Humans at an Alarming Rate” - Gizmodo

The list goes on and on, and on and on—most major outlets have run multiple stories that embrace this framing, and it seems that you cannot exist as an accredited general interest news organization without publishing at least one story framed around the robots’ incipient arrival. Hell, I’ve done it myself; it’s a convenient, faintly ominous, and click-generating shorthand for referring to the phenomenon of automation in the workplace. We’ve all been taught to use this framing, and my aim is not to lambast anyone for repeating it. My aim is to end it.

At first glance, this might like a nitpicky semantic complaint, but I assure you it’s not—this phrasing helps, and has historically helped, mask the agency behind the decision to automate jobs. And this decision is not made by ‘robots,’ but management. It is a decision most often made with the intention of saving a company or institution money by reducing human labor costs (though it is also made in the interests of bolstering efficiency and improving operations and safety). It is a human decision that ultimately eliminates the job.

https://gizmodo.com/robots-are-not-coming-for-your-job-management-is-1835127820