I’m Losing My Job

When accounting software sensation, MYOB, first listed on the stock market in the late nineties, many thought it would put accountants out of business.

Investors genuinely believed we wouldn’t need accountants if a machine could do it all.

Consequently, it’s stock price rocketed!

And so did the demand for accountants.

This week I met a lady who’s convinced she’ll lose her job to a robot like chatGPT.

She’s a paralegal for a law firm and when she recently saw how much faster a robot could do her job, she was physically sick.

Her comment reminded me of the first time we were allowed to use calculators at school…

“Math’s is going to be sooooo easy. I’ll never make a mistake ever again!” I thought.

Hell’s teeth. Wasn’t I wrong!

The only thing more painful than trigonometry was getting the ‘order of operations’ right to avoid even more mistakes.

But back to MYOB…

Before it was first released, many believed it would shrink accounting firms and save a heap of trees because there’d be no more journals, cashbooks, and big bulky ledgers…plus gallons of liquid paper.

Instead, the exact opposite happened. Productivity soared, the industry became more attractive and there was an explosion in office printers.

Every workplace is the same and our homes are arguably worse.

Big tech has been threatening jobs for decades. But history shows tech doesn’t replace jobs as much as it replaces tasks.

When the dot.com boom took off and lead us into the new millennium (Y2K), many thought it was the end of ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses and only ‘clicks and mortar’ would survive.

But that thesis failed. Look at how many tech brands have gone back to occupying traditional shop fronts as well as being online – Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.

And then there was the pandemic. When Covid reared its invisible head, many believed online shopping was the new world order.

However, since coming out of lockdown, a growing number of tech businesses – Audible, Bumble, Amazon, Apple, etc – have reverted to traditional media platforms for their advertising.

Google is the best example. The world’s largest search engine has every marketing means at its disposal, yet it’s now using free-to-air TV to extend its reach.

And then there’s social media. Gen Y (born 1981 – 1996) is the most connected cohort of our time, yet it’s also the loneliest.

Isaac Newton’s third law of motion explains it best…

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Meaning, tech doesn’t get rid of our headaches it just transforms them.

For example, online banking is infinitely better than standing in a queue with a passbook.

However, the convenience of banking online also means bank robberies now happen from the other side of the world.

Nothing ever goes out of fashion, it just changes form. Which is why today’s robots are no more an existential threat than last century’s software.

It’s just that when they appear we think this is ‘it’. A bit like your first cassette player.

Have a great weekend!

Adam

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