For decades, American manufacturing jobs have moved overseas. Many of these sweatshops have been relocated to countries with low wages and lax labor laws. De-skilling, monitoring, and health risks are particularly evident in electronic sweatshops- data-entry warehouses packed with low-paid keyboard operators. Computer monitoring raises issues of privacy and, in many cases, lowers worker morale. ![]() Experts speculate that productivity will rise as organizations adjust to new technology and develop human-centered systems adapted to the needs of employees. Some jobs are de-skilled-transformed so they require less skill-while others are up-skilled into more technologically complex jobs. The impact of digital technology varies from job to job. Satellite offices, cottage industries, and portable offices offer alternatives that may be more practical for some workers. Still, telecommuting from home is not for everybody. Telecommuting has many benefits lbr information workers, their bosses, and society as a whole. A growing number of workers use computers to work at home part- or full-time, staying in contact with their olfices through the Internet. So far, predictions for widespr-ead computer-supported cooperative work and paperless offices haven't come true. Early office automation centered on mainframes that were run by highly trained technicians today's office is more likely to emphasize networked PCs and other devices for decentralized enterprise computing. Far more people work in offices than in factories, and computers are critically important in the modern office. ![]() Computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing, robots, automated assembly lines, and automated warehouses combine to produce factories that need few laborers. The automated factory uses computers at every level of operation. Factory work is declining as we enter the information age, but factories still provide us with hard goods. Information technology is having a profound influence on the way we live and work, and it is likely to challenge many ol our belieis.
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