The challenges to getting back into the workforce will differ from one person to the next, depending on individual circumstance and motivation. These challenges can also be quite daunting if one has not planned well for a return to work.

REMOTE WORK

• Retirement does not mean that you are now totally unable to function. Work from home, online or work part-time so that if you return full time, the change is easier.

 EMBRACING CHALLENGES

• If circumstances have forced you to return to work reluctantly, keep in mind that embracing the challenges and not allowing them to intimidate you, makes it easier to adjust to changes. If you had a senior position before, to start again at a lower level. Be prepared to overcome the hurdle of being over-qualified in the position for which you have applied, by listing the advantages to the company when they use you. Show what you can bring to the table.

SKILLS UPDATE

• A mother of young children who stopped working to take care of them until they start school will wisely plan her return long before she returns. She can take on work that she can do from home to keep up with progress in the workplace, particularly with new technology. This will preempt up-dating skills; although up-dating your skills to cover a wider range of opportunities is wise.

HEALTH

• Workers who lose their job because of a health condition will have to make sure they are fit for work again. Recuperation should include regular physical and psychological tests to measure ability to perform. Should the reason for the lay-off be because of an accident where time in hospital is extensive, you could work on-line until you are fit enough to return to work.

PART-TIME WORK

• The same goes for redundancy casualties. Continue to work part time if you have to and make sure you up-skill while trying to get hired full time. This keeps you current and also avoids missed opportunities.

DIVERSIFY SKILLS

• Up-skill intending to cover a wide range of positions in various fields of work and not just your own field. This will not take away from any specialist skills you have.

TRIAL RUN

• Should an objection be that existing staff may object to re-hiring you because you don’t fit in or you’ve been away too long, ask for a trial run to give staff the opportunity to get to know you and so they see what you can contribute to the company. Developing a relationship helps to remove any perceived threat to their positions.

HARD WORK

• Be willing to work as hard as anyone else on the team and make sure you do not come across as a dead wood.

ACCOMMODATE STAFF INSECURITY

• There will always be those workers who are more territorial than others and who refuse to co-operate; keep trying because this type is usually looking for attention and approbation–give them the attention they seek and soon they will become more co-operative.

Hope this has been helpful.  You can see more work related posts on Articles

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Limited

Artificial intelligence or AI, a term describing a robot’s limited intellect, is centuries old. The first known mechanical human-type goes back to the third century BC in China. Someone called Yan Shi made it. They called it an Artificer.

Digital AI

In more recent times, George Devol invented the first digitally operated programmed robot in 1954. Its name was ‘Unimate’, a word which suggests working together.  They thus defined it as a mechanical helper. For anyone who has doubts, it may help to remember that human innovation is constantly growing. To stop growing would be like trying to hold back time. We’ve gone from walking to riding animals to cycling. We went from driving steam engines to electric trains, and then we drove cars and flew airplanes. Why would we stop there? The smart thing is to embrace change and use our natural creativity to work with AI to our best advantage.

New Dawn

 Improving on the Artificer and the ‘Unimate’ was inevitable as the new dawn of the computer and the internet arrived. The following shows how useful AI can be:

 1. COMMUNICATION:  messages travel at such high speed now that help from first responders speeds up, often saving lives. Communication, through computers and smart ‘phones, has become indispensable in the workplace.

2. SECURITY: Cameras and high-tech systems are invaluable for safety and security in the public space, but especially so in high-risk situations in business and at home.

3, SAFETY: High-risk work like fire-fighting can have the danger reduced with the use of robots. Drones often take the place of firefighters.

4. BUSINESS:  We use AI to for making assessments that people take much longer to make, as in surveys where customer needs are determined, eliminating unnecessary trial and error. Planning, analyses, performance monitoring and predictions can all speed up, arranged and completed more efficiently.  AI assists the retail need to focus on customer satisfaction rather than the product.  It takes the guessing out of this with calculations, assessments and by tracking customer trends more accurately and much faster.

5. INDUSTRY: In the manufacturing industry, those companies leading in all fields will be those that have integrated AI with conventional methods. Assembly lines that combine automated systems with intelligent vision systems of AI can prevent recalls of defective goods. They do this by reducing any defects missed by the human eye, because we make errors when people get distracted or tire easily.

6. AGRICULTURE: With the ever-present challenge of food security, the use of many new labour-saving inventions has led to the faster and more efficient production of food.

7. ENVIRONMENT: There are many AI new technology inventions for clearing up pollution of the environment, which has arisen out of modern lifestyles; a consequence of human evolution.  One of the biggest polluters being cars, the logical answer was the electric car.  More advanced inventions will follow the electric car if science fiction has anything to do with it.

8. MEDICINE: We use AI in the medical field for procedures that result in less invasive techniques and often with more effective results.

9. NAVIGATION: In the need for directions and mapping, the intellectual capacity of AI, limited though it is, guides users with navigating systems. These systems speak instructions in place of reading them from a map.

10. Robots:

 The personal use of companion robots that can engage in conversation with people are being developed. Some devices can even decide depending on the software and algorithms.  AI supports travel to space and other planetary ventures.

Reservations  

The reservations that some people have may be that AI will replace people if employment becomes an issue.  Human beings still have to 1. develop the systems, 2. maintain them and 3. constantly improve them for efficiency, thus requiring employees.  Therefore, design, innovation and ideas are things that man still controls. Even when a robot decides it is human input, the algorithm and human design, that ultimately do so.

Mechanical

Repetitious mechanical work, which nobody enjoys anyway, is where AI is most useful. This leaves people to focus on more important and more rewarding activity. A robot will do the boring stuff more efficiently and without complaint.  This eliminates those very human factors; mistakes, distraction and forgetfulness. An American presidential candidate suggests big corporations compensate all workers, who affected by AI replacement, with a share of the profit that they make. Retail depends on consumers, and they need income to be consumers. The bigger challenge will be how governments can implement this. 

Human Factor

Misuse of inventions is always the unpredictable human factor.  However, one can hardly stop the march of progress because people have not developed enough to keep up with their own inventions.

Lynda Rogle (Stephen)  ©

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