Caring About Your Job Future

Since the recession began (at least the last one), the job market has changed dramatically. Gone are the middle-management jobs—those multiple rungs on the corporate ladder that provided upward mobility, a snappy title and a pay increase at each step. Computers and other digital devices took over many manual tasks, decreasing the number of employees to do the job. Gone are the steno pools of the 50’s and 60’s with row upon row of typewriters with a typist at each station. Now, everyone is his own administrative assistant, answering phones, writing memos and answering email. 

With so many jobs gone, where are the jobs for the future? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics compiled a list of the fastest growing occupations for 2020, and came up with an interesting skill thread – empathy. There were occupations like speech therapists, massage therapists, registered nurses and fitness trainers. Psychologists and pre-school teachers. The list goes on of occupations that will grow by 20 percent or more by 2020. Thinkers and doers will have jobs, but the feelers—people who have interpersonal skills, empathy and true concern for people will have a wider choice of jobs. 

All these jobs are high on customer/client contact and in need of people with customer service skills. This future prediction comes from an article by Forbes Contributing Writer George Anders. Stenographers, gas station attendants, and assembly lines with hundreds of blue-collar workers have disappeared. It takes fewer and fewer people to run manufacturing plants, auto assembly lines and just about everything. But one thing that isn’t being eliminated is customer service call centers, instant chat lines, and a customer service counter where a customer can plead her case to a human being. There isn’t anything that can take the place of true face-to-face conversation with someone who cares about making the customer happy.

The popular TV series, “Cheers,” was all about how people loved to go someplace where, “…everybody knows your name.” Computers and recorded messages, no matter how complex, can’t build a relationship with someone. People yearn for a sense of community, for connection. Part of the enjoyment of going to a gym, coffee shop, bank or even the neighborhood grocery store is someone calling you by name, asking about the family or how your job is going. It’s the personal connection--talking to people with the same life experiences. 

Ask someone what they want to be, and you’ll rarely hear someone’s life ambition is to be a customer service rep, a front desk agent or a bartender. But, as the article points out, these are the people who make a business, workplace or job take on a caring, community-like personality. Sure, you can use the self-check out and get out of the store faster, but then you don’t have the opportunity to chat with the cashier, impress them with how much you saved with your coupons or compliment the bagger who puts the bread on top of the eggs and gently places them in the top of the basket. No computer or robotic self-checkout station can do that.  

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