Disruption a fact of life, so workers must adapt fast
As one who is working two jobs, I was delighted to read the letter “Help workers respond to changing work environments” (Jan 23). The writer had an important point: Work environments are constantly changing and workers must learn to adapt.
As one who is working two jobs, I was delighted to read the letter “Help workers respond to changing work environments” (Jan 23). The writer had an important point: Work environments are constantly changing and workers must learn to adapt.
I see my work history as an example of adapting to the way the world is moving. I am a graduate who never held a “steady” job until my late 30s and two jobs after that into my early 40s now.
For the better part of a decade, I was an independent public relations consultant. While I did not make much money, I had successes and developed a good working relationship with members of the Indian and Saudi business communities here.
I also had the privilege of working with multinational companies. Then, as I approached my 40th birthday, I needed a steady income and thus took a part-time job in a restaurant.
While some people have said that I was downgrading to a blue-collar job, it allowed me to stabilise things and, funnily enough, the people management skills I learnt in PR were useful in the front line of restaurant work.
An accounting firm specialising in corporate restructuring has since hired me. Technically, I have started again from the bottom of the corporate ladder. However, I have managed to learn a new skill and enhance old ones.
While my career path is unconventional, I have achieved a certain amount of income security in an age when income security is not the norm. I guess it takes a certain mindset to adapt to circumstances.
One must, however, accept that the world is changing. Manufacturing is being automated by better technology, and many professional services are heading the same way.
Politicians might attempt to pull the wool over people’s eyes by claiming they can restore jobs by protecting industries and increasing import tariffs. But the reality is that nobody can stop progress, which unfortunately means that lives will get disrupted.
Rather than pin hopes on politicians who promise to turn back the clock to a more peaceful era, it is better to accept that disruption will be a fact of life and to adapt.
It is easier to find new ways of making a living once one acknowledges that things such as new technologies and foreign competition are here to stay. Workers of the future must prepare for many careers and enjoy them.