![]() Moreover, not being directly responsible for the lives of passengers anymore meant that the metro drivers actually felt a loss of responsibility in their adjusted jobs (Anteby and Nishani 2016). Instead of being able to respond and act immediately in case of emergency situations, for example, these newly appointed managers were now only indirectly informed of emergencies. However, a follow-up on the metro drivers who were now managers revealed that they were feeling deprived of meaningful work. This new work could be seen as exciting, non-repetitive, and stimulating due to the increase in (formal) responsibility similar to the previous example. Some of the metro drivers were offered alternative employment as managers. ![]() The work of metro drivers in Paris was partly outsourced to robots with the introduction of self-driving metros. It is equally well possible, however, that robots in the workplace can pose a threat to meaningful work. It seems that Scott’s work has become more meaningful after robots were introduced to work alongside her. What she does and how she does it now makes a greater difference to the operation of the warehouse than before. In her new role, Scott has greater responsibility, and she exercises her capacities for understanding and decision-making to larger extents. Her new tasks, for which Scott received additional training, are non-repetitive and mentally stimulating (Wingfield 2017). She found her former tasks boring and physically tiring. Instead, she now oversees the robotic arms stacking the bins, making sure that everything goes well, and intervening in case of trouble. Fortunately for Scott, this did not mean that she had to find a new job. Nissa Scott is one of the many workers whose daily work-in her case stacking plastic bins in an Amazon warehouse-has been outsourced to a robot. ![]() Our findings about ways in which robotization of the workplace can be a threat or opportunity for meaningful work can serve as the basis for ethical arguments for how to-and how not to-implement robots into workplaces. We conclude that robotization of the workplace can have both significant negative and positive effects on meaningful work. We also identify a few ethical issues that emerge from our analysis. For each aspect, we analyze how the introduction of robots into the workplace may diminish or enhance the meaningfulness of work. We do so by identifying five key aspects of meaningful work: pursuing a purpose, social relationships, exercising skills and self-development, self-esteem and recognition, and autonomy. In this paper, we therefore address the impact of robotization on meaningful work. Doing work that is meaningful leads to higher job satisfaction and increased worker well-being, and some argue for a right to access to meaningful work. However, the impact of the increasing robotization of the workplace on meaningful work has received very little attention so far. The concept of meaningful work has recently received increased attention in philosophy and other disciplines.
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