Quote of the Day: The Future of Labor

Here is a great post labor day quote from marketing guru Seth Godin,

In a world where labor does exactly what it's told to do, it will be devalued. Obedience is easily replaced, and thus one worker is as good as another. And devalued labor will be replaced by machines or cheaper alternatives. We say we want insightful and brilliant teachers, but then we insist they do their labor precisely according to a manual invented by a committee...

Companies that race to the bottom in terms of the skill or cost of their labor end up with nothing but low margins. The few companies that are able to race to the top, that can challenge workers to bring their whole selves--their human selves--to work, on the other hand, can earn stability and growth and margins. Improvisation still matters if you set out to solve interesting problems.

The future of labor isn't in less education, less OSHA and more power to the boss. The future of labor belongs to enlightened, passionate people on both sides of the plant, people who want to do work that matters.

In the ongoing transition to the information age, investments, trade and jobs will require increasing patterns of diversity and specialization. And as pointed out by Mr. Godin, those who focus on the mediocre will suffer from commoditized wages and profit margins and will be subjected to rigors of tight competition.

Finally, this also shows how labor, like capital, isn’t homogeneous.