Law Firm Partner's Self-Serve Checkout Exemplifies Shadow Work Economy
A law firm partner going through a self-service checkout isn’t exactly an unusual sight. But it does offer a lesson in how technology has created a “shadow work” economy.
In an opinion column for the New York Times, Harvard Magazine deputy editor Craig Lambert says he saw the partner scanning purchases the other night. The lawyer likely makes at least $300,000 a year, “yet she was performing the unskilled, entry-level jobs of supermarket checker and bagger free of charge,” Lambert writes.
A 1981 book defined shadow work as unpaid work—including housework—done in a wage-based economy. Lambert believes the advent of technology is increasing the shadow work burden and displacing workers. He offers these examples: Self-service kiosks at airports replace ticket agents. Computer travel websites replace travel agents. Computers allow professionals to do their own typing, making support staff “an antiquarian concept.”
Lambert recalls the science fiction novels that portrayed robots taking over society. “The robots are in charge now,” he writes, “pushing a thousand routine tasks onto each of our backs.”
