Automation and Mechanics: How it Affects Employee Perceptions and Relationships at Work

Automation, and new technologies, have become well-known terms over the last few decades but with this new "fame" a few negative aspects as well. Automation has always carried a particular shadow of fear wherever it went. This fear includes the anxiety of replacement, the fear of unemployment, the fear of conflict between employees and employers and the fear of losing valuable relationships at work if it were to be implemented. In South Africa, seeing as though South Africa is still a developing country, employees have not yet experienced the full impact of automation as in developed countries such as America, China and England. Automation has only been implemented on a small scale in some companies. Nevertheless, these small scale implementations still caused a negative ripple throughout the business sector of the country. Employees perceived automation as being a problem that will only lead to an employee being replaced or losing his or her work. The phenomenological study was done using qualitative research by interviewing low-level employees and their managers/employers. The interviews focused on how employees perceived the various factors of automation. The primary objective of this study was to identify the perceptions that employees had of automation and how they feel automation will affect their world of work. The researcher examined various ways that automation influenced the labour market regarding employees, especially low skilled workers. The results of the study showed that even though automation is still relatively new in South Africa, employees always feared its presence.