Week
November 29, 2018
When the prime minister of the country listened to this song for the first time in a long time on the radio, he got an idea.

It was a song about a woman's week:
  "On Sunday, I went to the market and bought some yarn.
   On Monday, I filled the bath tub and heated it.
    On Tuesday, I took a bath.
    On Wednesday, I met my darling.
   On Thursday, I went to see him off.
   On Friday, I didn't spin the yarn.
   On Saturday, I only socialized with my friends.
   This is my weekly job."

He liked this song, imitating a Russian folk song melody. The lyrics were somehow humorous. On Sunday, on Monday ... is rhythmical. He thought, "Maybe if it was now, she might be criticized for lax working. But the weekly idea is interesting. It might make ..."

There were three major problems in the labor environment in this country.

One: Because of an aging society and a low birthrate, there was a shortage of workers, especially blue-collar workers. Many robots worked in factories, construction sites, guarding buildings. Drones delivered parcels, machines harvested. But even so, there were many human jobs that were needed. For example, cleaning toilet is a complicated job for machines. Parents didn't want their kids to be taught by a robot teacher. Even taxies demanded human drivers for emergency situations, although driving itself was done automatically. Customers hoped that a waitress or a waiter would serve their table, they didn't want to eat food that robot chefs cooked.  

Two: AI computers supported workers' jobs. For example, if you needed to send an apology email to one of your customers. You only needed to choose the customer's name, and type 'make an apology email for XXX'. The AI would get information about the customer and the business from his computer and make a suitable email. He later would check it and send it. Like this, workers' main jobs were to give orders to AI computers and check their workings.

Three: Because AI computers were improving day by day, people's jobs situations were unstable. If you were a young man who studied hard about one subject, but when you are about to get a job in that field, that field became AI computers' job. This type of risks existed everywhere.

Because of these factors workers became unstable and they demanded that the government create a new drastic labor policy, and the prime minister did.

After two years, the new policy was carried out. A TV reporter asked some workers about their impressions of the new policy. The following were two of them:  

Mr. Hobbs
He had five jobs for each day of the week.
Monday: Taxi driver
Tuesday: High school teacher
Wednesday: Cook
Thursday: Guardman in a building
Friday: Office worker at a publishing company
His impressions:
"At first when the government started this policy, I thought this was crazy. I had a hard time for only one job, a teacher. But my wife strongly suggested to get more jobs because the government prepared incentives like subsidies and tax exemptions for those who partook in this new system.

At first, I thought my students would think that I was irresponsible. But they didn't. Rather, they asked me every day how I managed five jobs.

At first I was worried about my relationship with other workers. But they didn't mind whether I was a new comer or a veteran, as long as I could work at a certain level.

At first, I thought it would be difficult to communicate with my clients, for example, writers at the publishing company. But I prepared elaborate documents that covered pay, schedule, etc. They were pleased with it, saying that they could work within the plan."

Ms. Carter
She worked from Sunday to Thursday at different jobs.
Sunday: Waitress
Monday: Office worker at a pharmaceutical company
Tuesday: Caregiver
Wednesday: Construction worker
Thursday: Web designer
Her impressions:
"I used to work as a full caregiver. I have a license. When I was a kid, I wanted to work at construction sites, so my dream has come true.

Now I enjoy all five, but it was terrible for the first 6 months. I mistook orders many times at the restaurant; at the office, I made many mistakes when calling customers, making documents, everything. But after half a year, a strange thing happened: all my jobs started to become smoother. Now I have confidence about my jobs.

Now I feel like I have five different lives. Each day of the week gives me a different perspective. When I had only one job as a caregiver, I was obsessed by the idea that I should be a perfect caregiver. But now I can enjoy my jobs, because who can be perfect for five jobs?! Now I feel relaxed and it makes customers feel comfortable. I think that doing many things isn't a bad idea now."











*lax :ずぼらな
*partake in :参加する
*subsidy :補助金
*exemption :免除
*elaborate :入念な
*pharmaceutical :製薬
*caregiver :ホームヘルパー
*obsess :取りつく
inserted by FC2 system