Collaborative welding robots and their impact on welders’ work experience in the UK

This article investigates the job satisfaction and working conditions responses of welders after the implementation of collaborative welding robots in their workplaces. Through semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observations at three sites, it explores themes such as pay, prestige, professional identity, social interaction at work and career prospects. Our research suggests that working experiences and responses to the robot are highly varied among welders, and many individuals were ambivalent about the new technology. We found evidence of improved work experiences, such as improvement in occupation safety, offloading repetitive tasks and the social prestige related to working with a robot, but also drawbacks and anxiety surrounding the adoption, change in professional identity and the possibility of being replaced by robots in the future. Building on previous literature on automation and job displacement, especially on the impact of new technologies on blue-collar workers, we broaden academic debates from questions surrounding labour replacement to delimiting contexts where new technologies enable the retention of workers and the creation of more meaningful work.