Life in the informaton age -employment

Life in the information age- employment

IntroductionThis week I am going to discuss life in the information age. In the fore coming weeks my aim is to .discuss some of the aspects which have been positively affected by the information age. The aspects I will discuss in the following weeks are: employment, education, entertainment and crime prevention. Each of these aspects will contain many examples and illustrations too give you a real feel of what life in the information age is actually like.

Society has changed particularly when we look at how jobs have been made ‘easier’ by technological advances in recent years.

Employment

Information technology is highly important in today’s society; there are so many jobs that require computers in today’s society with many employers looking at people who have basic and specialised computer skills in order to carry out their job successfully. Many employers would consider people without basic computer skills at least unemployable because of the amount of time in the workplace that is spent alone working with computers and the relevant software. If we take the typical checkout staff at a supermarket for example, without basic computer skills they couldn’t possibly use the electronic point of sale to scan products bar codes for the main computer to send product price back to the EPOS in order to make a transaction (the electronic fund point of sale for the customer to pay for their items).

The way in which people work has changed. A shift has occurred here, however IT is not necessarily the cause but the ‘spark’ for the change to have happened. You may now notice that nearly all office staff is now expected to have basic computer skills in order to carry out certain tasks. This viewpoint gives you a sense of how important information technology has been for society in general going from that rural sense of community where hard labour was required into a life where computers seem to dominate every aspect of life. If we look at how some of the equipment used in the 1980s for example compared to modern day IT equipment you will see a dramatic change in appearance and capability.



                                          

These two pictures of computers that I have shown here really do show the change in technology over the past 3 or 4 decades. The early 1980s computer-left at best would have had a decent word processor, not the most effective office tool; however in recent years computers have evolved so significantly with the invention of the internet being a huge turning point but also how powerful they are becoming, for example recent adverts have now shown computers can have a 6GB RAM compared to earlier models this year with only 4 GB RAM. This piece of evidence helps you to understand that this is the information age where technology dominates everything we will do in our day-to-day lives.

If we look at specific jobs for example where IT is used you will see that life in the information age has had a huge affect on how we carry out our jobs. For example artists can now use specially designed graphic software, managers can now word process documents (in the 1980s a typewriter would be neared with someone trained to use it properly). What IT has brought to society is more time to do the activities that we wish to do, however so few people have the skills in which to use basic IT equipment such as computers, word processors etc. However some people argue that letting machines do everything for us is bad because a typical human will not get enough exercise in their lives. This certainly is the viewpoint of (NICE) National institute for clinical excellence as they argue that the sedentary lifestyle is being promoted through IT.

However what are the advantages of the information age?

If we look at a typical sales rep for example many changes have occurred to his/her job that benefits them quite significantly.

Having to travel around will lead to an expense in petrol and possible rush hour queues making the sales rep frustrated and generally quite tired. However 1 piece of technology has helped in their job the mobile phone, the phone has enabled the sales rep to quickly contact clients quickly and portably it has been important to ensure petrol isn’t wasted and rush hour queues are avoided by status updates on smart phones such as blackberry. Secondly ,the sales rep would have to carry around coins to use a public call box wherever they are to call the office or a client, the mobile phone means this isn’t required which is a huge benefit to the sales rep because let’s face it we all lose coins now and again. Also a sales rep will need a diary to record important dates in, however the normal way isn’t needed because the mobile phone has that too for example the new apple 4Gs Smartphone lets you record key dates and through voice recognition you can see what important events are happening throughout your day. The sales rep also won’t need a calculator because it is on their mobile phone, so by giving you these examples you can see firstly how versatile technology has become in our lives and secondly how much freedom technology gives us.

Satellite navigation also has become very important in the job as sales rep. Part of their job is to travel; they have to travel to their clients to get potential business for their product/s. The sales rep normally would have had to carry around a road atlas as a guide to where they are going however with the sat nav a quicker and more efficient route can be made to avoid queues and make a more relaxing journey.

Teleworking

As I have previously stated the introduction of ICT in the world has changed many people’s work patterns. The introduction of the internet has enabled many people to communicate with the company absolutely anywhere. Teleworking means to work from home through the direct use of IT; many people will tend to slip their time full time and part time between home and the office. Statistical around 7 million people in the UK will use IT away from home whether that is part time or full time.

Advantages of Teleworking

Work when you choose to- If you are a person who likes to sleep most of the day then Teleworking would particularly suit to you because you can work whatever hours you choose to. I think this is a good advantage because it allows people to structure their day instead of being stressed about having to do work as soon as they get up.

Time is saved- On estimate the average person will spend around 4 hours travelling to work a week that is almost certain to cause stress such as having to get to meeting quick in the morning. What Teleworking provides you is extra time to be able to do work without having to travel anywhere, this in turn brings another advantage in what the amount of fuel you will have to spend or paying for public transport is drastically reduced. I think this is a great advantage to an individual because people do moan about the hours they have to work in the day.

Having to park your car- For the people that own a car one of the biggest disadvantages you are faced with when going to work is finding a place to park. With Teleworking having to park your car isn’t a problem anymore because all the work you do is directly done at home via your computer or your laptop.

Employment for other people- Certainly one of the biggest advantages for the company is that they can employ people ho doesn’t live in the area. If there is a shortage of staff that lives in the area then they can employ people throughout the country and even abroad who are willing to work from home.

Disadvantages of Teleworking

Working longer- One of the biggest disadvantages that a person will face is that may end up working longer hours at home compared to the office. For example you may decide that would will do a bit extra to get work out of the way while compared at an office for example you probably would do work that is specific for that day. I think it is a major disadvantage because stress is caused by long hours and many may continue to do work without a break.

Socialising- When working at home you will find that there is no social aspect involved. This for me this is one of the biggest disadvantages that IT has brought to society in that we are turning from having to work with people into a society where everything can be done for us without the assistance of others. There is no team spirit involved at home, and you can end up feeling quite lonely at times when you aren’t able to talk to anyone because they are working elsewhere.

Hours being put in by employees- it is difficult to understand whether or not the employees are putting in the right amount of hours that they should e putting in. Many workers are unmotivated to do work and for employer finding this information out can be difficult. For me this is a big disadvantage because people can claim to of done 6 hours for example, this mean that employers are paying out more money than they actually should and they aren’t receiving the work that they should be getting from employees.

My experiences after researching- I know someone that does this kind of work, they said that to do it properly you must be well motivated, have regular breaks and have sufficient sleep in order to work these long hours. I think that this kind of work is not very good because even though fuel is being saved and you can wok whatever hours you like there are social aspects to consider and being motivated enough to work at home.