Unfulfilled: Collaborative Robots and the Persistence of Tough Jobs in e-Commerce Warehousing

This paper investigates workers’ experiences with collaborative robots in e-commerce fulfillment centers (FCs). Powered by the latest algorithmic technologies, collaborative robots operate alongside their users rather than independently. There are conflicting accounts of how they will impact job quality. On the one hand, they are dismissed for reducing worker autonomy and permitting more pervasive means of managerial control. On the other, they are heralded for augmenting human capabilities, taking on undesirable tasks, and giving workers more command over their jobs. Yet the actual effects of collaborative robots are underexplored. Using data from a survey of more than 1,500 hourly workers employed in 16 FCs operated by a U.S. retailer, I compare job characteristics and worker attitudes across facilities that use one of three main technologies to retrieve customer orders: collaborative robots, conveyors, or hand-pulled carts. The findings show that, compared to the older technologies, collaborative robots are not associated with significantly better jobs. Relative to workers in cart facilities, workers in robotics facilities report lower levels of job satisfaction, decision authority, skill discretion, and supervisor and coworker support, along with increased job insecurity, turnover intentions, and alienation. These levels are similar to those reported in conveyor facilities. In light of these findings, collaborative robots appear to be a refined means of managerial control rather than a liberating departure from past automating technologies. They are likely to impose burdens on growing numbers of workers as the e-commerce industry expands and as they find their way into other sectors.