I spoke with one of my staff members, asking what he felt about the new opportunity given to him. He said he is happy yet there is an air of anxiety in his response. I was not surprised as we laid off some people last 2023 because of a new direction that the management overseas wanted to pursue. The continuous rise of AI and automation has indeed shaken the tech industry and its effect has permeated all industries. There will be a day when repetitive work will be obsolete, displacing workers all over the world.
I’ve pondered about the security of tenure and what it means today. In the Philippines, there is a law about this. The 1987 constitution has a provision for protecting employees from immediate termination without just cause [1]. However, the word “just” is the limitation of the said right. It does not protect an employee from losing his/her job if the company is affected by external forces beyond the company’s control.
In the ’90s, a college degree gave a person a fighting chance to have gainful employment. There’s even a high level of employment security if a person works in big companies or the government. This principle is still partially true today. Partially because these 2 conditions (a degree and a prestigious company) don’t always equate to secured employment. Google, for example, has laid off thousands of employees in the wake of 2024 and has announced it will cut more jobs [2].
“Is job security still true today?”. I believe it is. But it is not a matter of where to work or what diploma or certificates a person has. The era of paper mills attesting to a person’s capacities is over. Today, the value of an employee is gauged by his/her professional accomplishments and qualities that will still make him/her relevant even when the market for jobs is changing. Artificial Intelligence cannot replace a person’s ingenuity. The need for constant learning is imminent. That is why aside from using creativity to solve a problem, the skill of a lifelong learner will help anyone traverse through today’s era of automation. Soft skills like people management, negotiations, and customer service are important too. These are not easily replaceable by machines.
Another important 21st-century skill is Digital Literacy. UNEVOC, a social arm for technical training of UNESCO, defined this as the ability to “access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies” [3]. It is no longer a plus in a resume that a person is “computer literate”. This skill is a necessary survival skill today, next to reading and writing (functional literacy). Access to technology is as important as the ability to process and make use of information available to the user.
Today’s drastic changes in the world of work are not new. In the same way that there are fewer typewriter repairmen today, we will see a slow decrease in some jobs. The key is not where to look for our next company to apply to but rather build upon ourselves the necessary skills and characters that will secure our place in the new era. Technology will continue to disrupt industries and we won’t go anywhere if we cannot embrace the reality of constant change.
References:
- Rights of employees | Official Gazette of the Republic of the … Official Gazette, Republic of the Philippines. (n.d.). https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/featured/rights-of-employees/
- Elias, J. (2024, January 25). Google CEO says more job cuts are needed in 2024 in order to reach “ambitious goals.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/17/google-ceo-says-job-cuts-needed-in-2024-to-serve-ambitious-goals.html
- Tvetipedia Glossary. (n.d.). https://unevoc.unesco.org/home/TVETipedia+Glossary/show=term/term=Digital+literacy
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