CHAPTER 15DEI Principles to Live By
Between 15 and 30 percent of jobs in the developed world are estimated to be taken over by machines, disembodied AI, or robots in the next 10 to 20 years.1 In his book, Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America, Kurt Andersen cites these pre-pandemic estimates in his chapter on the future of work, warning us that manual labor jobs aren't the only ones at risk of automation. Engineers, radiologists, and even lab assistants may all find themselves competing against machines in the future workplace.
Automation isn't the only force reshaping the future of work. As chapter 3 highlighted, the future workforce will be increasingly female, non-white, neurodivergent, and LGBTQ-identifying with each passing year. We will also be facing a mass retirement of baby boomers; every day, 10,000 more turn the “official retirement age” of 65,2 and Forbes estimates that 75 percent of baby boomers plan to retire early, taking with them decades of institutional knowledge.3
Even the concept of the physical workplace is no longer a given. The hybrid workplace is likely here to stay, with Twitter, Facebook/Meta, and Amazon all announcing in 2021 that their employees can work from home indefinitely.
In the face of these shifts and the unknowns we are yet to encounter, crafting a DEI strategy can feel daunting. How can you know that the policies you implement today will be relevant even a year from now?
Ambiguity should not stop you from developing a DEI strategy. It ...
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