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Can we talk about how everyone blames robots for the warehouse layoffs but misses the real reason?
I work IT at a big fulfillment center near Columbus and watched 200 people get let go in March when they brought in 40 new pick-and-pack robots. Everyone on the floor swore the bots stole the jobs, and I did too until I saw the numbers. The site's output only went up 8 percent, but the suits cut staff because the old conveyor system kept jamming and a consultant told them humans were the bottleneck. Here's the rub: the same robots that replaced those folks still need 15 techs to fix them every week, and we can't hire enough because nobody trains for that. So did automation really kill the jobs, or did bad management use the robots as cover? If you've worked in a warehouse that got automated, did the machines actually do the work, or was the company just looking for an excuse to downsize?
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daniel_gonzalez22d ago
Robots still took those jobs no matter the reason behind it.
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