Will your job still be here?
What if massage might be one of the few jobs left for humans to do.
The world is going through rapid change, but many predict this change will accelerate even faster. One of the things that may change is the nature of work, amount of work and amount of jobs.
The People Problem in Employment
People are an expensive way to get things done. That is why (in the capitalist world) we have so often looked to replace people with technology whenever we can.
You see the thing about people is: we’ve got too many issues.
There are too many people on the planet and yet not enough babies to support an ageing population.
We have advances in life expectancy that mean we should live for 100+ years in most Western countries.
We are self-obsessed. We are not generous, wise or really ‘connected’ via social media and that is why we allow a third of the population to be starving and another third to be obese.
We have 1st world rates of depression that are literally killing our young men at rates higher than war-times.
We’re bored, angry and sad – and that’s before we get in the office.
Once in the office; we cost money, don’t always get along, sometimes behave maliciously, need management and incentives, demand certain work conditions, get sick and expect certain things like time off for holidays. Oh and we get things wrong (occasionally).
The case against “people” being used to do work is strong if far-fetched. We can hardly imagine a future where we don’t have a job. It seems crazy.
This belief in the availability of ‘jobs’ is mostly because historically we have changed the jobs we do as our technology improves.
But this time it’s different. The types of technology we are creating now displace jobs as we know it for anywhere up to 80% of us according to people like Professor Andrew Scott
The New Job-Stealing Tech
In recent history we have seen software improve the efficiency of certain jobs. Salesforce helps sales people, LinkedIn helps recruiters, Basecamp helps project managers, Canva helps designers etc.
These have reduced the time it takes to do certain work, but the resulting lob losses have been comparatively small.
But those software technologies are only the tip of the iceberg.
New technologies don’t want to help you – the human – do the job. They want your job: AI ChatBots that give better customer service, Robotics (including drones and driverless cars) that don’t tire, Machine Learning algorithms that crunch Big Data producing Analysis (that improves itself) and Things-with-the-Internet-in-them. They all want your job.
The technologies above will take jobs from low-skill through to high-skill. No one’s job is guaranteed safe.
Massage Still Needs Humans
Whilst no job is 100% safe. It is likely that people will still want human connection. Touch is a sense and senses demand stimulation. It’s likely we will still want another human for massaging purposes.
It’s not that a robot couldn’t give a technically proficient massage. They could.
It’s not that a robot couldn’t determine the anatomy of client in greater detail and apply a more accurate technique. It could.
It’s actually because a human giving a massage can listen.
A human giving massage can feel energy and react ever so subtly to the whole of the person in front of them.
The human element of massage is what makes massage go from ‘good’ to ‘divine’.
Whilst providing a product that is hard or impossible for a machine to replace is of some comfort to massage professionals. The future is not all beer and skittles.
Who Will Get Massages In The Future?
If work is being done less and less, by less and less people, who will get massages?
Perhaps we will have more leisure time, play more sports, engage in physical activity that requires more massage.
Perhaps though we will have less corporate massage, less workplace accidents, less rehabilitation and ultimately less massage work overall.
The future is always hard to predict but from our vantage point we see a future with massage, connection and transformative inter-personal experiences.
Do you see humans being replaced by machines (robots) for massage? Do you think the world will still need Angels?
Tell us what you think.