How Modern Technology Reshapes the Way We Work

For many nowadays, Labor Day is about having a barbeque with friends and family, relaxation, watching movies, outdoor fun, or even shopping. And fair enough, as an extra holiday on the first Monday of September is always a great opportunity to see the summer season off and recharge before the new working year. This Labor Day, however, we’d like to reflect, look closer at what this holiday stands for, and celebrate how dramatically different the labor of most people is today.

The history of this holiday goes back to the America of the 1880s. The labor movement was very strong back in the day, fighting for the rights and recognition of America’s workers. Thanks to the achievements of social activists of that time, we now have lunch breaks, weekends off, paid vacation, and an 8-hour working day. The new holiday that trade unions tried so hard to establish was supposed to celebrate the solidarity of the working class and their contribution to America’s prosperity and strength. Picnics and marches were always a traditional part of Labor Day, but the main focus was on workers’ rights and recognition.

Of course, working conditions back in the day were strikingly different. Most of the things that we take for granted today were beyond working people’s wildest dreams. Technological progress has streamlined countless tedious, hard, and time-consuming tasks making modern workers more productive than ever before in human history. Things that used to take days and weeks back then can now be done in minutes or even seconds.

Old movies are a good reminder of what it used to be like—accountants, teachers, and entrepreneurs having to spend countless hours writing reports or scientific papers, completing registers and logs manually. Each copy had to be rewritten by hand, which meant hours of tedious, fruitless work. Nowadays, thanks to computers, printers, copiers, fax machines, email, and messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp, we can exchange information with our clients all over the world in mere seconds.

Or take typists, for example, that had to type various texts on typewriters all day. One little error, and they would have to retype the whole page over again. Today, editing a document is a matter of minutes. With Google Docs, Word Online, or Notion, several people can do it at the same time to facilitate the process.

But when it comes to modern professional tools, even computers seem like old hat. A lot of tasks these days can be easily done with a smartphone and a short list of mobile apps, which combined become a full-cycle workshop.

Mobile developers work tirelessly so that people who need to work with documents but can’t spend their whole day behind the office desk could do everything they need on their mobile phones. Whether you need to make a presentation, create a table, edit and insert an image into a document, or solve a math equation, today there’s an app for everything.

For example, with a mobile app like iScanner, we can scan documents and then edit them, sign, correct distortions, and share them with colleagues and clients right in the app. Modern AI-powered apps like that can make a scanned copy look better than the original source document.

Let’s not forget apps like Zoom and Google Meet that allow team members to communicate and collaborate from anywhere in the world and boost productivity. Flexible work schedules and being able to keep in touch with teammates working from different locations are one of the most valuable technological achievements of our time. What’s more, you don’t even need a laptop to be able to do it—just take out your smartphone and join the workflow.

Nowadays, a mobile phone is no longer a mere means of communication, but a full-cycle professional tool. The majority of tasks that office workers used to need a PC for can now be easily done on a mobile phone. On top of that, some modern mobile apps allow you to do more than just basic document-related tasks. For example, the above-mentioned iScanner can automatically count similar objects or measure the dimensions of objects and rooms, which can come in handy for professional renovators.

We can only speculate how technology will reshape our workplaces in the future. As they say, progress doesn’t stand still, and something even better and more convenient might replace smartphones tomorrow. Labor Day is an excellent occasion to look back, remind ourselves how much our working conditions have improved, and appreciate the amazing technologies that keep changing our lives for the better.