state of the art

OPINION PIECE

MARCH 2023

Text:
Rachel Marques

The state of the ever-so-quick evolution of artificial intelligence has made me reconsider some of the thoughts I have been having about management resources in corporations and the accumulation of wealth. 

I find it fascinating to explore the chain and the individual actions of people that build more wealth to the very ones that they are likely to be made redundant by. It’s so interesting to see how people see “maximising resources” without understanding the true cost it actually brings. Either in a drop of quality, production dissolution and employment care as when we try to offer “cost-effective” there is always something missed along the way. The cost is always there, and it isn’t just seen in the end result. 

The way I see many brands going to studios to get the work done for their e-commerce is incredible, without understanding the costs that it brings to the people these same studios hire. I have seen photographers getting paid £80/day to do a full day’s work. The medium rate 2 years ago was £250. A medium-weight photographer is being paid between 24k-26k whereas before it was 30k. Now, I am sure you’ll always be able to attract people to work at these rates in today’s day and age (hell, there were 168 applicants on those 24k job offer). We are all just trying to do our best and get the work done. 

The question remains not on what are you getting for that amount in terms of quality, but on what care are you providing to the person you are actually employing. I am sure you think “That’s not my problem” but as a matter of fact maybe it is.

Why wouldn’t you consider the impact you have on society and that person’s life? I’m sure you care about something being plastic usage, the environment, parental leave, gay rights, damn anything at all! Is there nothing you care about? Why not care about the very person you are hiring to do a job for you and your impact on their lives? Maybe they need your business for this month to get the rent paid, maybe they communicate with others in your set and they are very lonely otherwise, maybe just because you published something on your LinkedIn about being kind and spreading kindness. What’s kinder than empathy?

Furthermore, what are you doing to the market by lowering the prices? But more than that, why? So a large brand can save on costs? Those same costs will be used for dividends and company payouts that hardly ever get to the hands of the people actually doing the work. The same people that will be made redundant as soon as physically possible - either the brand gets sold or goes bankrupt. 

Now I know, you’re just an employee of the company, just a cog in the machine, you just have to do it! How can you not? You’re already strained by the company and doing a role that was done by 3 people before you came along. Hell, I was requested to do Video, Photography, Retouching, Samples and Production in one of the companies I was in, and I tried my best to do it all. The mentality in it was “we just have to do it this way, there is no other way”. Yet, the dividends were still coming out every month to the shareholders, the pay of the managers was triple what I was getting and the work they were doing was, quite frankly, laughable in comparison with some of the ones at the bottom (let alone the stress everyone was in). It’s hard to see the impact of our actions in these types of roles, as they are more “managerial” but take for example the roles that keep on being suppressed in other areas of your life, like transportation, communication, education and health. 

In a constant fight to maximise costs, we have cut down the human element more and more, introducing all sorts of cost management versions of what we already use. Instead of speaking to a human you now speak to a machine that unfortunately can’t match the skill, quality and humane aspect of a conversation. You book your appointment through an app (that asks you the same question 5x as it’s just a chatbot), you attend your gym classes through a computer, you get taught through a machine instead of looking at your students as well as having empty platforms on the underground line (God forbid you don’t know what to do or get lost in the line - or worst, have to ask for help in the case of an injury or harm). All of this after a pandemic that has pushed people to be more lonely than ever, cut ties that - to be fair - were barely hanging and made everyone consider everything (and everyone) redundant, useless and meaningless. 

Now, I don’t write this to make you feel worse, I just simply would love to hear if you have ever considered what part have you played in this. What have we allowed others to do to us or how have we lowered (or been taught to lower) our standards so that a £50 at the end of the month (which by the way, you hardly value because you end up spending it in the meaningless things of life anyway) comes at the cost and expense of the person next to us. What kind of empathetic gene have we lost that we don’t see beyond our actions and their consequences? When I look around and see people cutting corners as that’ll save money for the already million-dollar corporation that preaches they are “bleeding out money” but conveniently still have money for shareholders and investments, I just find myself wondering how have we all contributed to this on our very small actions, every single day of our lives.