As I plod along in my daily swim upstream, I have the occasional epiphany that makes me pull over into an eddy behind a rock and contemplate my situation. Gradually, I have been making better use of the Microsoft Office suite of products generously provided to me. Among those tools is MS Access. I have been devising database tools to help me keep various kinds of data available for quick retrieval as well as access to the source documents. For some of us, it helps for retrieval tools to be as visual as possible.
As I put the finishing touches on my latest creation, it dawned on me what a rube I was. Again I had fallen into the technology trap. Instead of making a case for administrative help, I had merely taken another step along the path of telescoping increasing job responsibilities into my work week.
It suddenly became crystal clear. Microsoft products have facilitated the near complete extinction of whole job descriptions. In times past, highly trained employees were given assistants to leverage or multiply their activity. Assistants would attend to organization of information and limit access to their boss. In this way, employees could focus on performing the expensive skills they were hired for. To a very large extent, personal computers have rendered obsolete what used to be an ordinary working duo- a manager/specialist and an administrative assistant.
This working pair has been replaced with “personal productivity tools” that allow- require, really- that the specialist take care of all of the correspondence, filing, categorization, phone-tag, drop-in visitors, requisitions, expense reports, etc., required for the job. In most organizations I am familiar with, expensive specialists are expected to be their own office managers, file clerks, and receptionists.
Th’ Gaussling can be a bit slow on the uptake, so I’m sure others have already noted this effect long ago.
In a similar vein, James Kunstler writes about another consequence of technology. Here, he is making reference to electronic voting machines, but the notion applies well to another marketing scam: compulsory excess capacity or capability. Another way to say it is, a high tech “solution” to a low tech problem.
What many people are nervous about, of course, is the chance of shenanigans with the voting tally. Just one minor feature of the general paralysis gripping this society has been our inability to get rid of those mischievous Diebold computerized voting machines that leave no paper trail. By the way, these touchscreen voting units are an example of the diminishing returns of technology. There was nothing wrong with the old mechanical units, but by making over-investments in complexity we’ve just created more problems for ourselves. This ought to be a warning to those in the thrall of techno-triumphalism.
How many people make full use of most of the features of, well, any of their software? When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you are the largest software company in the Milky Way Galaxy, everything looks like a software solution opportunity.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
In Canada we mark our ballots by using a pencil to mark an “X” in a circle next to the candidate’s name. Ballots are hand-counted. It’s done this way across the country and it works well — no software crashes. I saw no computers at the polling station during our most recent election.
I used to feel the same way when I worked for other corporations, both large and small. The place I’m at now is different in many respects.
We contract with clients to supply R & D services, submitting to them a proposal to do work X for Y dollars in Z weeks (fixed bid). Everyone here has a fixed billing rate which figures not only into the proposal, but also into the P & L when the project is done. I now have great motivation to use the admin assistants to do work, since my projects will get billed at a lower rate than if I do it, and the project will show a profit.
Note that law offices are similar, but still different since they are not fixed bit. If the attorney does the work, he/she can generate more revenue than what the assistants do.
Consider the larger picture as well of outsourcing. For most companies, R & D is considered a cost. For us, it is profit. This would be the case with all outsourcing – janitorial services, cafeteria workers,…
With each passing year, I am more upset with the power of accounting rules to rule the world.
You’re looking at the problem through an American Lens. There are places called France, Sweden, Switzerland where people demand something from their government.
It’s socialism or bust for the US. The purely capitalist model is only stable in fascist states or eras of great plenty (which the economy expands into).
The fact that no one in the US raises an eyebrow that Gates gained 50 billion through monopolistic, exploitive strategies is testimony to pathetic apathy of a culture that worships at the shrine of gross profit.
That’s money he stole from people. He is a thief.