From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 19 February

The scientific and technological developments of the last 80 years – since the end of World War Two, are phenomenal. Some of us remember everything, starting with the SALK vaccine in 1956.

TECHNOLOGY is fantastic until something goes wrong, and then it creates an impossible chaos.

On those occasions when the computer is down, or it is taken away to be repaired, one is rendered workplace impotent. The world, momentarily, ceases to turn, so dependent have we become on technology.

I resisted, for as long as possible, a mobile phone, but without one life becomes impossible. While I have given-up on cheques, I refuse to wave my phone at an EFPOST to pay for purchases. I like my credit card.

The recent crash of the entire myki system is one such a predicament. Curiously, those travellers who have been invalidly charged and are entitled to a refund, are required to lodge a specific application for approval – something which one would imagine might be an automatic programmed response. The anomaly lies not with staff, but with an out-dated ticketing system.

Recently, I had a damaged card which, obviously, needed to be replaced. I discovered, to my astonishment, PTV has three myki hubs – Melbourne, Bendigo and Geelong. Ballarat, with a population slightly less than Bendigo, is not so favoured. The replacement palaver is too silly. If you are not travelling to Melbourne, it requires an on-line form (which proved problematic), and returning, by post, the damaged card to PTV.

Fortunately, after firing-off a strident email, the problem was resolved; however, for the number of days it took for the new card to arrive in the post I travelled without payment on Ballarat buses.

I smiled wryly when, in an attempt to explain, briefly, my dilemma to one particular bus driver, he appeared to reel back in horror, curl his lip in abject disbelief, and then told me to sit down – summarily dismissing me with a wave of his hand!

The technological revolution, with all its brilliance, has come at a human price. It has, and continues to, cut a swathe through the work force.  Many thousands of jobs have been lost as a consequence.

Do not misunderstand. I have embraced, totally, workplace changes, and on reflection, I cannot imagine how I typed using an up-market, electric IBM golf ball, with proportional spacing, and a self-correcting tape. When the time came, I threw the typewriter into a skip bound for the tip. I could not give-it-away!

Categorically, I refuse to use the self-checkout in the supermarket. While managements seem determined to phase-out staffed checkouts, we should not capitulate without a fight. If I wanted to be a checkout person, I would apply.

However, there is a more considered and important reason.

So many unskilled jobs – and that term is not used pejoratively, have been swallowed-up by mechanisation. I am more than willing to stand in a queue and wait if it means I am helping to save someone else’s job.

Furthermore, the prices remain the same however you choose to pay.  It could be argued, the retail costs of goods covered the wages of staff employed to collect the money at the till. If they want for us to self-checkout, they should offer an incentive. A discount of 10 per cent would reasonable.

Better still – save someone’s job!

Roland can be contacted via [email protected].