The Human Transition to Ergonomics of Ubiquitous Autonomous Work

Abstract

Until recent years, ergonomics has developed intramurals actions in productive organizations, that is to say, a large part of the research and studies carried out so far in ergonomics have focused on the activities of workers (individually or collectively) in architecturally or physically delimited places, where the reference unit of measurement was the time of execution with respect to an individual, a task or a technology. In the first decade of the 21st century, both the hybridization of forms of work [1] and the emergence of technologies for communication contributed to transforming this scenario and to the emergence of a new horizon; elements such as professional self-management and the emergence of the sphere of ubiquity have emerged, their emergence comes from the available technology that promotes and facilitates the availability of what is necessary to develop an activity or perform a task at any physical point [2], in fact the modification of the worker-company link implies changes in a large part of the basic ideas of ergonomics [3]. Among other reasons because work has an increasingly immaterial character and therefore activities are carried out independently of physical spaces. [4] For this reason, ergonomics requires new elements to be added to the analysis processes; in the interventions, it is necessary to include concepts such as omnipresence, self-implication, intensification, liquid work, availability, self-monitoring and life for work. In other words, ergonomics faces the challenge of a worker immersed in the flow of her professional career and mobility.