Effects on employment, working patterns and health
How IT changes jobs and how to work safely.
Learning objectives
What you need to be able to do
Teacher-mapped phrasing — check against the official Cambridge syllabus for exact wording.
- 5.1.1Describe the effects of IT on employment and working patterns.
- 5.1.2Describe health issues associated with IT use and how to reduce them.
5 minute read
Effects on employment, working patterns and health
Effects on employment
IT removes some jobs — particularly repetitive manual and clerical roles replaced by robots and automated systems — while creating others: network managers, programmers, technicians, data analysts and web designers. The result is not simply "fewer jobs" but a shift in the skills demanded, which is why retraining matters so much. Workers displaced by automation often cannot move directly into the new roles without it.
Changing working patterns
- Teleworking (working from home) — saves commuting time and cost and offers flexibility, but can be isolating, blurs work and home life, and needs self-discipline and reliable equipment.
- Flexible hours, part-time and job sharing — made practical by shared systems that let several people work on the same files at different times.
- Compressed hours — the same weekly hours worked in fewer, longer days.
For employers, teleworking cuts office costs; against that, it is harder to supervise staff and to build a team culture.
Health issues and their prevention
Each health risk pairs with a specific, examinable prevention:
| Problem | Cause | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| RSI (repetitive strain injury) | prolonged typing/mouse use | wrist rest, ergonomic keyboard, regular breaks |
| Back and neck pain | poor posture, bad seating | adjustable chair, correct screen height, footrest |
| Eye strain / headaches | staring at a screen, glare | anti-glare screen, regular breaks, look at distant objects, good lighting |
| Deep vein thrombosis | sitting still for long periods | get up and move regularly |
Note that safety issues are different from health issues: trailing cables (trip hazard), overloaded sockets (fire), and drinks near equipment (electrocution) are safety risks, and exam questions often ask specifically for one or the other.
Think of it like this
Automation moves the workforce rather than shrinking it, much as the car did to the horse trade: far fewer stable hands, but a whole new industry of mechanics — no comfort at all to a stable hand who cannot retrain.
Worked examples
Method, step by step
An office worker develops repetitive strain injury. Explain the likely cause and give two ways it could have been prevented.
- 1RSI is caused by repeated small movements over long periods, such as continuous typing and mouse use without rest.
- 2Taking regular breaks allows the muscles and tendons to recover.
- 3Using a wrist rest and an ergonomic keyboard supports the wrists in a natural position, reducing strain.
It is caused by prolonged repetitive typing and mouse use. It could be prevented by taking regular breaks, and by using a wrist rest and ergonomic keyboard to support correct wrist posture.
Common misconceptions
- Claiming IT only destroys jobs. It removes some categories while creating others, and the real issue is the mismatch in skills.
- Mixing up health and safety. Health issues develop over time from how you work (RSI, eye strain); safety issues are immediate physical dangers (trip hazards, fire, electrocution).
- Giving vague prevention such as "sit properly". Name the measure: an adjustable chair, a footrest, an anti-glare filter.
In the exam
- Pair each health problem with a specific prevention. A list of problems alone typically scores half the available marks.
- For evaluation questions on teleworking, give the employee view and the employer view — they are different, and questions often specify which.