In this excellent Atlantic piece ‘The Coders Programming Themselves Out of a Job‘, the dilemma facing employees that manage to automatize their work tasks is described in detail: what should you do if you manage to automatize your 8 hours’ task and then have nothing more to do?
Some fake it and try to look like they’re hard working – until they are caught. Some others transparently declare the situation – management is generally surprised (but not necessarily awed), and often takes too much time to reorganize the work. The central question is “Is it unethical for me to not tell my employer I’ve automated my job?”
In my view, this article just shows poor management quality that is unable to imagine that job tasks can be automated, or respond positively to employee initiatives. This is the reflect of an unhealthy corporate culture, which is unfortunately too widespread.
It seems to me that we should celebrate people who manage to automatise their tasks, give them a raise and see if they can contribute further. There is no fun performing repetitive tasks all day long if they can be easily automatized. And it is definitely not future-looking. It is much more fun to devise and code creatively and shift the value elsewhere.
