Tina talks to... Today's Britons

This is a conversation with my brother, Mark Stowell, about how the world of work has changed over the last 40 years for those on the shop floor working in manufacturing and logistics. What is it like working in a 24-hour high-tech environment in contrast to one with deadlines and mass orders? What is it like when computers and technology drive rates of performance and standards, instead of human beings? How does this affect the motivation of people who work in these environments and the relationships we build? Indeed, does it make a difference to who wants to work there? The backdrop to our chat is that, for the last two years Mark has worked in the shipping department at a large Amazon Fulfilment Centre, and when Amazon arrived in the local area and created several hundred new jobs in 2019, I was surprised to learn (contrary to all I’d previously heard) that the contract terms, wages and working conditions were good; and better than most other places offering unskilled work. In this conversation, Mark covers in fascinating detail some of the routine aspects of the various jobs he’s done over the years, and through his analysis of how the workplace has changed, offers an insight to the human consequences of relying on and giving more authority to machines. The question it left me with is – what can or should we do about this? Because whilst we are motivated by the benefits of greater productivity and convenience that technology brings, the workplace is also where we build relationships and stronger local communities, without which we can't survive.