Deskill

Quick meaning: Deskill is a verb meaning (transitive) To redesign (a job) so that less skill is required to carry it out, for example through the introduction of new technology.

Meaning

(transitive) To redesign (a job) so that less skill is required to carry it out, for example through the introduction of new technology.

More Meanings

1. (transitive) To change the role of (workers) so that they are no longer required or able to use the skills that they have acquired.

Example Sentences

Tragic, too, is the gradual deskilling of teachers, loss of excitement about the profession, and loss of gifted teachers to other pursuits.

The impact on workers is fairly obvious but I believe that managerial jobs have also been deskilled by the adoption of controlling systems and procedures.

In this transition from an economy built on energy-guzzling heavy industry toward a 21st century society of energy-sipping high technology, millions of Americans and Europeans are being “deskilled.”

“Word processors are wonderful to make us more productive, but employers tend to take this to an extreme,” she said. “Some secretaries are very pleased with automation, but it's the larger number whose jobs are deskilled, made more redundant.”

Word Forms

• deskills
• deskilling
• deskilled
• de-skill

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include de-skill, decruit, downsize, downgrade, decasualize, outskill.

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