Wake me up when the robots eventually take over the world

Brett Debritz asks: what's happened to the "golden age of leisure" and when will my flying car arrive?

Automation in the workplace was supposed to give us all lots of leisure time. (Pawan Singh / The National)

Ever since I started working more than 30 years ago, I’ve been preparing for the long-promised golden age of leisure. Back in the 1980s, my friends and I were told that we were part of the last generation who would have to work for a living; that robots and computers would take over our humdrum jobs and our biggest problem would be how to fill all our spare time.

Of course, with very few exceptions, it hasn’t happened yet. And where the machines have risen and taken over, the people they replaced have also stopped receiving an income with which to enjoy their new-found leisure hours. Given this, those of us who still have jobs to go to – albeit not in our flying cars or on hoverboards, as we expected – should be grateful.

Right now, the best we can do is try to find a proper work-life balance – which means making the most of our time away from the metaphorical coalface.

I know many people who plan their lives around weekends and public holidays. In the UAE we are well catered for in the latter department. Many of these holidays carry a religious or cultural significance, and they are built around spending time with family – which is, of course, one of the best ways we can use our leisure time. Since my family is in Australia, I don’t have that option on a weekly basis, but I make the most of it during annual leave.

For various reasons, many people have to work on weekends and public holidays, and for most of my working life, I’ve been one of them. While I’d hesitate to call what I do an essential service, journalists are among those who are sometimes required to work around the clock. The news never stops happening and, especially now in the internet age, consumers are increasingly in a hurry to know what is going on.

As a result, I have worked on every day of the week and across every hour of the day.

I can tell you that the 10pm to 6am shift is a killer, but I really don’t mind it when I’m required to work a day shift on a weekend or a public holiday. The phones don’t ring as often, the flood of emails slows to a trickle, and the atmosphere in the office is a little more relaxed and convivial.

There are deadlines to be met but, in general, I’d rather be in a newspaper office over the holiday period than in a crowded airport terminal or a shopping mall scrambling to grab a bargain before somebody else beats me to it.

And the good thing about working what we used to call “unsociable” hours is that it gives you time to do the things you have to do – grocery shopping, banking and so on – and the things you like to – lying on the beach, for example – while everybody else is at work.

The even better thing is that public holidays that are worked can be converted into days off at quieter times. So I can exchange five days spent in the office for a week of my choice on a holiday far from the madding crowd – and that’s exactly what I plan to do in the middle of this month, when I board a cruise ship for a journey up and down the Gulf, beginning and ending in Dubai. If you look closely from your office window, you’ll see me waving from the balcony of my stateroom.

Over the years, I’ve found that this kind of working arrangement is becoming more common, and that many of my friends have joined me in the unsociable working hours club. A lot of them work as freelancers or in part-time and casual jobs. Some have more than one job, others are on call to work only if they are needed, while others who are self-employed regard themselves as “always on”, which really must put a strain on their social lives. All work and no play would not just make me dull, it would drive me crazy.

Many of these people have had midlife career changes, having been forced to find work in new industries as the jobs dried up in their previous profession.

It seems that the perhaps-not-so-golden-as-we-first-thought age of leisure is back on the agenda, given the recent news that robots are taking over the world. Or, to be more accurate, that robots will be able to perform half of all the jobs in Japan – and presumably elsewhere – by 2035.

In just 19 years, 50 per cent of us will be redundant. And that means those questions about what we’re gong to do with our time, and whether we’ll have any money to do it with, are again being discussed.

Smart and ambitious young people will, of course, be looking to get the approporate qualifications and place themselves in future-proof careers (as much as that is possible).

This is pretty much irrelevant to me, because, if I’m still around, I will be well and truly retired by the time the robots are calling the shots. I don’t know much about retirement, but I understand that the hours are excellent.

On Twitter: @debritz