deskill- ? common?

[mkenuk]

It has been a very good couple of  weeks for making additions to my 'Words that I have never heard of that are common in Chi' list.

First there was nucleate (now classed as uncommon), then garnishee, which I foolishly assumed had something to do with what vegetables were added to a meal.

Now we have deskill;
According to the COD it means 'to reduce the level of skill required to carry out (a job)'

How can you reduce somebody's actual ability to do a job?
Or is it one of these time and motion/ business jargon terms that means you lower the level of qualifications required for someone to do that job?

In any case, the wretched word cost me a rosette in the unskilled game, so, as I always do in these situations, I awarded myself an honorary rosette and wrote to the forum suggesting that it be reclassified.
 

[Ozzyjack]

Deskilling is the process by which skilled labor within an industry or economy is eliminated by the introduction of technologies operated by semiskilled or unskilled workers

It happens to chi players who give in to their baser instincts and use an anagram solver. 

[Alan W]

Not to prejudge the question of whether deskill should continue to be treated as common - which I'll look into in the fullness of time - I think that if you've never encountered the word, Mike, you must have missed out on a whole stream of social criticism. Deskilling has been used by many writers over the years to label changes in the workplace that reduce the skills required to produce goods. These could be changes in the organisation of work, such as assembly lines, or the introduction of new technology.

While the word has been widely used only since the 1980s, the concept was around long before that, at least since the 1840s when Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto:

Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for his maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases.

[TRex]

It was the last word I found — and was a 'shot in the dark'. New to me.

[Jacki]

Sorry can't help but to contribute. Love your reply Ozzyjack! Deskill is familiar to me although it was the last common word I found. Seeing how long you've been playing the game Mike it's amazing that the anagram of skilled/deskill is not lodged in your memory or that words with that combination haven't come up enough for you to write in your list. Can I say that you nearly always achieve a rosette and it's rare to see you miss, however I really think deskill and garnishee are way more common than sirrah.

[Alan W]

Coming back to this issue, it appears that deskill probably shouldn't be treated as a common word. It isn't used all that often, and is written with a hyphen almost as often as without.

Furthermore the word is sometimes put in quotes when used, signifying the writer feels it's not quite a standard word. Even the business magazine Forbes did this in July:

The economy was crushed by SARS-CoV-2. Businesses died. Many people lost wages that will never return and are forced to look for new work. Some will be forced to "deskill".

(In this case the meaning is, I suppose, that people will be forced to take jobs for which they're over-qualified.)

I'll make deskill and deskilled rare. Deskilling was already rare, oddly enough.