Business week published an article today titled ‘The End Of Work As You Know It‘ where it was argued the concept of the workplace and the employer/laborer relationship are changing as a result of increased connectivity (virtual worlds, social networks et cetera). The article discusses the evolution of the workplace using a variety of anecdotes representing the forthcoming change.

The reason why I bring up this article, besides its obvious relevance, is because it brings forth an interesting and divisive point at the end of the article–questioning what “technology’s ultimate impact on workers” will be.

In discussing virtual worlds, while asserting my belief in it becoming an essential tool of the future, I often get bombarded with the generic concern that the entrance of virtual worlds marks the end of true social interaction and the ultimatum of superficiality.

In tandem, Business Week raises two pertinent questions:

1) Will this be a new world of empowered individuals encased in a bubble of time-saving technologies?

2) Or will it be a brave new world of virtual sweatshops, where all but a tech-savvy few are relegated to an always-on world in which keystrokes, contacts, and purchases are tracked and fed into the faceless corporate maw?

And their response:

“It’s safe to say we’ll see some of both. But perhaps we can comfort ourselves by realizing that, while technology will change the nature of work, it can’t change human nature. “All of these technologies,” says Charles Grantham, executive producer of the research group Work Design Collaborative, “aren’t going to be a substitute for face-to-face interaction.”"

Business week tackled this point well. Human nature is human nature. The rise of virtual environments and other collaborative and social metaverses are not meant to replace human interaction, but simply augment it (at least for now). This is the underlying supposition of progress.

Click here to read Business Week’s article