Dull, Dirty, Dangerous…and Demeaning

Automation covers tasks that fall into certain categories: dull, dirty, and dangerous are the classic trio. Repetitive, boring work like moving items from one spot to another over and over — that’s a robot’s jam. Or a conveyor belt’s. It’s not something humans need to do.

Working in toxic environments or in cramped spaces where it’s hard to breathe are also good things for machinery to do, rather than human beings. Many tasks in mining, in waste management, on farms, and in slaughterhouses are dangerous and dirty work that we’d be happy to pass along to machines.

At the Cascadia Connect Robotics Automation and AI conference in Pittsburgh, Dr. Bernard Casse, founder and CEO of RIOS, added another category to the equation. “We have upscaled the workforce,” he explained, “and they are no longer doing sort of the dull, demeaning and dirty jobs.”

Demeaning jobs

Labor is honorable, right? Just by its very nature, work has a certain nobility.  Robots aren’t in demand for jobs that many of us would see as demeaning, like acting in porn films.

But a survey found that there are other jobs many Americans see as demeaning, including pest control technicians, bus drivers, corrections officers, retail salespeople, and telemarketers.

Most of us hang up on robot telemarketers, and jailers probably won’t be automated out of the market any time soon. Bus drivers are another matter. Replacedbyrobots.info estimates the chances of public bus drivers being replaced by robots at 100%.

Your Indramat systems

Your job is probably not demeaning at all, but that moment when your Indramat systems fail to work can feel pretty demeaning as people shout at you and you stamp on the sparks flying off the machinery. At that moment, you need to give us a call. We can fix the problem.

We offer factory repair and reman for Indramat industrial automation systems.