It’s tomorrow. You wake up, yawn, stretch and wipe the drool off your face. Sitting up, you sense something isn’t quite right. What could it be?

It’s dark. The world is twilight. You flick the switch on the bedside lamp and nothing happens. Bulb out? Power cut? You fumble around for your phone. Got it. Pressing the button, you discover that it is mid-morning and there’s no network signal. What is going on? Getting out of bed, you tippytoe to the window and pull the curtain aside for a peek.

It would appear that, whilst you slept, the apocalypse has happened. Fires are everywhere, the sun is barely visible through an atmospheric miasma of dust and ash. Buildings are giant, wobbling, Jenga constructs, and the streets are populated with crashed cars and injured people crying and praying.

Wow! You slept gooood!

What happened?

Did a super volcano burst? Could a great earth pimple have blasted magmatic pus into the stratosphere and this is the result?

Maybe a giant asteroid, a space commuter, was looking for somewhere to park and chose earth but, forgot to hit the brakes.

Perhaps the UN finally said “Flurbedooblebubblelubbergub! Moop?”, and all the esteemed leaders of the nuclear powers danced a little jig of excitement and pressed their big, red, “FUK ‘EM UP” buttons, and launched all of their Intercontinental Ballistic Penis Extensions at each other, whilst making o-face.

Either way, this is something of a situation.

Humanity’s “elite” are quivering in their panic bunkers, so now what? Climb back into bed and wait for this nightmare to go away? Should you check your insurance policy, assuming you can find it? Should’ve stocked up on toilet paper, right?

You should probably go to work and see what they want you to do.

In this post-apocalyptic world of disease, famine and cannibalism, how do you plan to survive? What useful skills or abilities do you possess? Are you essential to the survival of the human species, or are you simply so much, “meat on the hoof”?

What if this is a decision you have to make about someone else?

In front of you is a qualified nurse. A medical professional with years of experience. You’re going to need them in the days to come.

Standing next to the nurse is your favourite movie star. The person you could only dream of meeting. The object of your dreams and aspirations. One of the highest earners in the world but, not essential for your continued survival. Time to stan. “O.M.G. I’m, Like, your BIGGEST FAN! DoyouthinkI’mpretty? CAN I have your AUTOGRAPH? What? OH! Well, can you just mash your stump onto this paper?”

Which one of these people gets to survive, and which one is a month’s worth of pulled pork?

Ooh! Tricky, isn’t it? On the one hand that nurse could keep you and a lot of people alive but, on the other hand, that movie star is just so dreamy. Maybe they’ll fall in love with you, and tell you that you’re special.

You probably think this is mere melodrama, but this is the kind of decision that is being debated right now. By your employer. About you.

Are you, surplus to requirements? Are you worth more, or less, than someone higher up on the employment food chain, who is paid a lot more money, but isn’t really a part of the “production line”? Can you be replaced or, if it’s less alarming, “augmented” with something that doesn’t require pay, or a benefits package? Something that never needs a vacation.

Fixed automation has been with us for years. We quickly got used to assembly lines and fabrication systems that are largely machine managed. Now, in some homes, there are little robots that pop out of their charging docks and set about the business of hoovering up the detritus of everyday life. At some point they’ll become self-emptying.

Software robotics or, more precisely, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), is the next big thing that’s already here. Its purpose is to streamline operations and reduce costs. Artificial intelligences or bots learn by watching the user perform tasks in the GUI, then mimic and pre-process their actions with increasing efficiency until, eventually, the user hardly needs to be there. Digital workers, operating 24/7, have taken on the duty.

The official line is that, this doesn’t mean everybody is going to lose their jobs. Au contraire. By managing and performing repetitive, easily emulated tasks, RPA will free us up to perform more challenging, creative, and productive work. Whatever that might mean for your sector.

RPA is pretty much all around you. Whatever device you are reading this on, it has learned your application usage habits and prefetched and loaded them into memory, ready for you to use even if you have no intention of doing so. Direct online services require little oversight. Your bank and credit provider’s systems learn your purchasing habits and can flag anomalies. Voice activated virtual assistants learn your habits and desires, and eCommerce targets, tracks, and analyses your every move. Offering to you what you want, before you even knew you wanted it.  Any human involved is subservient to the process. Pick up thing. Take thing here. Put thing in box. Deliver thing. Repeat. Now, with no-contact delivery robots zipping along footpaths in some cities, the human element can be reduced still further.

Fixed and software automation, of course, lend themselves to combination.

In high-street shopping, your preferred supermarket or retailer has installed self-service checkouts. Perhaps you’ve noticed fewer staff around on a daily basis. You will have been encouraged to use these machines by the very staff they are designed to replace. With fewer staff on the tills, you are given no choice. Remaining staff act as monitors or babysitters, to machines they are tasked with keeping clean and, by ringing up their own items, the customer performs the role of unpaid employee. Don’t forget to tap your Clubcard.

Now, there are stores that are completely till-less. The human element no longer required beyond keeping the shelves stocked.

Remember, it’s not replacement, it’s augmentation.

All of this is happening because profit gotta profit, shareholder gotta shareholder, and consumer gotta consume. Employees cost money, and human interaction is time intensive and inefficient. Deskilled jobs and roles with a high degree of repetition, are prime candidates for fixed or software automation.

Anyway. Back to the apocalypse.

Society is starting to rebuild. New leaders have arisen and dissenters have been subjugated. The sky’s still hazy, and the bodies have been bulldozed into the nearest hole in the ground. Roofs have been tarped, a windfarm has been greased, and the power is on.

So, what is your new role? Whatever it is, rest assured, your post-apocalyptic employer is already considering ways to replace you. Or, at the very least, the bits of you they don’t need.

Are you sat at a desk, hammering away at a keyboard all day? Guess you won’t be needing those legs then. That’s tomorrow’s lunch catered.

How about those hands? You only really need one finger on each one, and we need something to go with this dip.

How attached are you to your head, in real terms? The CEO wants a hood ornament.