📘 Part 3: Jobs and Salaries

This episode's vocabulary

Ingenuity (noun) - someone's ability to think of clever new ways of doing something.

A cashier (noun) - a person whose job is to receive and pay out money in a shop, bank, restaurant, etc.

Build the bonds (collocation) - build a close connection joining two or more people.

Be laid off/lay somebody off (phrasal verb) - to stop employing someone, usually because there is no work for them to do.

A cog (noun) - one of the tooth-like parts around the edge of a wheel in a machine that fits between those of a similar wheel, causing both wheels to move :

Algorithm /ˈæl.ɡə.rɪ.ðəm/ (noun) - a set of mathematical instructions or rules that, especially if given to a computer, will help to calculate an answer to a problem.

Biased (adj.) - showing an unreasonable like or dislike for a person based on personal opinions.

A boardroom (noun) - a room where the people who control a company or organization meet.

Manual labor/labour (collocation) - practical work, especially when it involves hard physical effort done with the hands

Vulnerable (adj.) - able to be easily physically, emotionally, or mentally hurt, influenced, or attacked.

Enterprise (noun) - an organization, especially a business, or a difficult and important plan, especially one that will earn money.

A barista (noun) - a person who serves customers in a coffee shop (= a small restaurant that serves coffee)

Entrepreneurial (adj.) /ˌɒn.trə.prəˈnɜː.ri.əl/  -  relating to someone who starts their own business or is good at seeing new opportunities to make money.

In a nutshell (idiom) - using as few words as possible.

To tailor smth to smth (verb) - to adjust something to suit a particular need or situation.

To wind up (phrasal verb) - to find yourself in an unexpected and usually unpleasant situation, especially as a result of what you do.

A dead-end job (collocation) - a job in which there is no chance of progressing to a better, more important job.

Alignment (noun) - an arrangement in which two or more things are positioned in a straight line or parallel to each other.

A plumber (noun) /ˈplʌm.ər/- a person whose job is to supply and connect or repair water pipes, baths, toilets, etc.

It would bore me to tears - it would make me feel extremely bored.

Job stability (collocation) - the fact of an employee, or a group of employees, being able to keep the same job for a long time.

Job satisfaction (collocation) - the feeling of pleasure and achievement that you experience in your job when you know that your work is worth doing, or the degree to which your work gives you this feeling.

Delegate responsibility to smb  (collocation) - to give responsibility to someone in a lower position instead of doing it yourself.

To equate (verb) - to consider as the same, or to connect in your mind.

An oil rig (a noun phrase) - a large structure with equipment for removing oil from under the ground, especially from under the sea.

Mining (noun) - the industry or activity of removing substances such as coal or metal from the ground by digging.

A trade (noun) - the activity of buying and selling, or exchanging, goods and/or services between people or countries.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Rory, do you think that nowadays all jobs could be done by robots?

Rory: Well, probably all the jobs that don't depend on human interaction and ingenuity. Some people mistakenly think that includes jobs like service workers in coffee shops and cashiers in supermarkets, but I disagree. I think it's important to help build the bonds in a community for people to interact with each other while being served in this way. And if all of these people disappeared, I feel like we would lose an important element of social cohesion.

Maria: Do you think machines could replace human workers in the future?

Rory: Well, they already are, aren't they? It depends a lot on where it is, where it's happening the most. So, for example, it happens a lot in factories and farms where this impersonal mass production is the norm. I don't think that was such a great loss, except for all the factory workers who've been laid off by the process, and we need to think about a way to address that. But it's a huge process. And I think that trend looks set to continue, though some jobs simply cannot be done by robots. So it will stop somewhere.

Maria: What are the benefits of replacing human workers with robots?

Rory: Well, it's probably more effective and efficient and economical in a lot of cases. So we already mentioned factories. I wonder if it might make people more human as well, since mass production tends to treat workers like cogs in the machine. So if we have actual machines being treated that way, it's not such a big deal. It could also say that it has democratized some areas since... Well, algorithms that we use in marketing are far less biased than the machinations of a few people in boardrooms deciding what people might like, for example.

Maria: How have robots and computers changed the way people work?

Rory: Well, it's changed whether people do actually work or not. Especially in lower skilled or easily automated jobs where people are replaced by machines. In terms of how they work, so that's a good question. There's more integration of man and machine. Less manual labor in factories is done by people. It's all done at the touch of a button, now. So perhaps generally working has been made easier... Or work has been made easier, if less stable for people in vulnerable situations.

Maria: Which is more important for young people an interesting or well-paid job?

Rory: Well, it depends on their goals. I think if they want to start a family and create a good home life, then a well-paid job seems like the best option for supporting a family. However, if you want to gain experience and create your own enterprise, then something that they're interested in and can transfer skills to seems like a good idea.

Maria: What kinds of jobs are well-paid in your country?

Rory: Well, relative to other countries, the most jobs in Scotland are quite well-paid, though obviously those with greater responsibility for others and the interests of others are better paid. So, for example, if you work in a coffee shop as a barista, then you're paid just for that. Whereas if you're the manager, you're responsible not only for the customers, but the staff and the business too. So you're paid better or you're paid more than the staff.

Maria: What jobs do young people prefer?

Rory: Oh, I'm not really sure. I suppose most of them want a job that earns them respect and prestige, or at least attention from others. So traditional choices like doctor, nurse and teacher are popular. Although with everything happening in social media right now, it seems people are moving in a more entrepreneurial direction, like, becoming influencers or following trends and turning a profit based on that.

Maria: How can people find a perfect job?

Rory: Well, I talked about this recently, actually. So basically, in a nutshell, research and matching. So you tailor your CV to your workplace by finding out about it and then you tailor your workplace to yourself by a similar process. So you apply for different jobs in different places, but you also make sure that the different places you apply to suit you as well, or you can live with working there. So it's kind of important that you do both of these things, otherwise you could wind up well without a perfect job...

Maria: What factors should people take into account when choosing a job?

Rory: Probably there are long term plans and permanent principles. No one wants to be stuck in a dead-end job with low pay when they want to have a family or start a business, do they? So there should be some alignment of these things, matched with the pragmatism to compromise where necessary.

Maria: What kinds of jobs are unpopular in your country?

Rory: I suppose those that are considered low status or the preserve of people with a lower education... And that's not always rightly so... I'm just describing reality. For example, few people want to be plumbers, but this is actually a really good job in terms of the salary, and it requires a lot of technical knowledge. So maybe people should reconsider their preconceived notions in this regard. But right now, that's how it seems to be.

Maria: Are difficult jobs more interesting to do than easy ones?

Rory: Generally speaking, they probably are, since you have to think on your feet and find solutions to problems or find your way around the problems. It's not always the case, though. I mean, for example, being a lawyer is difficult, that it would bore me to tears.

Maria: Do you think that people who do difficult jobs should get higher salaries,

Rory: But they already do largely speaking! But it's not just about the level of difficulty. There are also other factors to consider and market mechanisms which decide how much people get paid, which are generally fair if the system isn't interfered with too much and allowed to function normally. For example, being a teacher is difficult but isn't particularly well paid relative to, say, a doctor. But there are other rewards for being a teacher, like, job stability and job satisfaction to consider.

Maria: What kinds of jobs deserve higher salaries in the future?

Rory: Whichever ones the market deems worthy of them... It's too complex a calculation for just one person like myself to make, for sure. It's more of an emergent process although, in this sense, I'm happy to delegate responsibility to the market in this regard, since it seems to be working reasonably well for most people. So that's my answer generally. Maybe more specifically, speaking jobs that involve IT will be more well paid as society becomes more technologically advanced. That seems logical.

Maria: Do people like to talk about their salaries with their friends in your country?

Rory: I think it's considered a bit rude to discuss money outside of your place of employment because it often equates how much money a person makes with their worth as a person, which I completely disagree with. I think it's better to talk about ideas than money.

Maria: What kinds of jobs need a lot of physical work?

Rory: Any manual labor job, like, working on an oil rig or maybe you're in mining or in a trade. Construction seems to take a lot of effort as well.

Maria: What's the difference between payment for mental work and that for physical work?

Rory: Well, there's no difference in moral worth or payment, assuming that you're doing a good job either way. It seems people are paid more for creating content now than for creating products. Especially if the difference is between a unique piece of content and a mass produced physical item. But that is a reflection of the way that we've structured our economic system and how reality works, I suppose. Something that's unique always has more value. Of course, you could say the reverse of a suit that's tailor made compared to a poster that's generic, couldn't you? So really, there is no difference, but it depends on the product that you're producing in that sense.