Is your friendly, neighborhood document automation company coming for your job?
It’s an intriguing question. Maybe a little scary too? With the fear of high unemployment rates and low job creation numbers constantly looming, why wouldn’t someone stop and say, “Whew. I’m just glad to have a job. And I will do everything I can from preventing the robots from taking it!?!” In the humble opinion of this blogger I’m going to say I respectfully disagree with that line of thinking.
Jeremy Deuchars ’15
“Something Bigger and Better”
I grew up in a household where my mom stayed at home and raised me and my brothers and sister, and my dad worked in a factory that manufactured gear drives. Now, if I were to ask my grandparents if little Larry ever once uttered the words, “When I grow up, I wanna work in a factory,” I’d be willing to bet they’d tell me, no. I can’t think of anyone who would. He went to work in a factory for 40 years because he needed to make money and provide a stable home for his family. While I’m extremely grateful for his hard work and sacrifice, I’ve asked him on several occasions, “Dad, what did you really want to be when you grew up?” The answers varied, but not once has he ever said, “Son, if I could do it all over again, I’d pick the factory.” That’s enough for me to surmise that even though people get comfortable in their jobs and they make enough money to pay the bills, there almost always is an innate drive that lives deep within the human core to want more and make us strive for something bigger and better.
So what happened to little Larry? Did a robot take his job? Nope. But had he not been of retirement age and had been made to stick around the factory floor for another few years that’d probably be the case. He’s a product of the generation that preached to find a good, stable job and you’re one responsibility is to do just well enough to not get fired. Pretty simple, right? After all, he never had to keep looking over his shoulder at that robot twisting his moustache, plotting the perfect time to sneak up behind him with his awkward, clumsy, C3-POesque walk and hand him his pink slip.
Making Automation Technology “Work” for You
Maintain. Status quo. Stick it out. Words and phrases that are beneath a human race that is so much better than being relegated to the menial tasks and routines that a robot and automation would be perfect for. We want more. Let’s do more! Show the robot who’s boss. Not by shunning technology, but by making it work for you and your organization. Consider your average Accounts Receivable (AR) specialist. I don’t know what your specific role entails and what your responsibilities are—but you do! If you do fall into the “I want more and want my actions to mean something” group, think about the some of the labor intensive stuff that you do every day, every week, every month . . . those real time wasters. Keep in mind time wasters are not synonymous with unimportant. They just keep you from focusing on other, more skill-utilizing activities. Things like:
- printing customer invoices,
- gathering supporting documentation,
- then printing them,
- folding, stuffing, stamping,
- schlepping down to the mailroom…
If there was a way you could cross all of those off your to-do list without having to actually do them, wouldn’t you want to? I’m not so wide-eyed and naïve to think that working on a big payment dispute resolution or putting together a report for an upcoming audit is going to bring new meaning to your life. Most of the time, manual efforts do not allow for the value added tasks that showcase your unique skill set to shine through when all of your time is taken up by prepping the mail. This also means that your hidden abilities may not be noticed by the right person who would be able to identify a role more suitable to your talents and effort. And that could be the catalyst to a huge improvement in your professional life. Personal life too! When we’re happy at work, we’re happy at home.
Don’t Hate on the Accounts Receivable Automation Robots
The AR Automation robot isn’t coming for your job. Let it do the work it’s made for – invoice delivery & payment processing. While you’re focused on bettering yourself and how you can add value to your organization, the AR Automation robot does what you tell it to and has no ambition nor any aspirations for more. The robot is happy with its lot in life – doing its job just well enough to not get fired.
Finally! The Robots have arrived in the form of automation technology that will allow you to work smarter, not harder. Embrace the change and see what kind of positive impact follows.