Homer Simpson of the American sitcom The Simpsons. Completely incompetent, humorously obese, and a terrible parent to boot. Ironically, he works the highly technically demanding job of a nuclear power plant supervisor. His millionaire boss, Mr. Burns, could care less about the quality of the jobs his employees are doing. While The Simpsons is fiction, and Homer is not representative of the vast, vast majority of nuclear power plant employees, there is still an important lesson to be learned from Homer.
In the era of robotic automation, many jobs will be replaced. However, there are some that just can’t be done by a computer. The touch of an expert is sometimes required to do what needs to be done. Unfortunately, Homer Simpson holds one of these jobs. As jobs are replaced, employers need to ensure that they don’t become lax on their employees’ credentials, as Mr. Burns has failed to do.