A common argument in favor of technology in the workplace is that it will gladly take care of the boring parts of our work and free us to do more enjoyable tasks.  New research from Åbo Akademi University explores whether that’s really the case.

They suggest that while routine tasks may not be something we would think add much to our work, they are actually crucial to our perception of the meaningfulness of our job, so having them automated away actually makes our work less meaningful to us.

The researchers delved into the topic as a result of the numerous predictions about the volume of our normal working tasks that could be automated in the coming years, with some of the more enthusiastic projections predicting that 60% of work tasks will ultimately be affected.

Automated away

The authors argue that much of the discussion to date has centered around which skills will go and which will be required in the future of work.  They wanted to bring a fresh perspective to the discussion and explore how automation affects the purpose we get from work.

“Our values guide many of the selections we make during our lives, including career or occupational choices and the type of competences we value. That’s why it is important to understand how the changes brought to work by novel technologies affect future work and if work will correspond to what we today view as meaningful,” they explain.

The study suggests that there is a clear association between the values we derive from various occupations and the potential for that occupation to be automated.  While the orthodoxy suggests that when the mundane tasks are automated and we’re freed up to perform more creative and social tasks this will make us more fulfilled.  The research suggests that might not always be the case, especially if it’s the mundane and routine tasks that provide us with that fulfillment.

“To date, we have mostly talked about how nice it is that routine work is being reduced. But what about those who enjoy such work? This is the first study aimed at understanding the ways our values are linked to the work we are expected to carry out in the future,” the authors conclude.