Noting that work is partly a social activity, and that workers' psychological and emotional needs influence their productivity, this paper explores avenues for improving human-robot cooperation and for enhancing worker satisfaction in the environment of flexible automation. The first section of the paper offers a brief overview of the worker-machine relationship, discussing several assumptions that have lead to inaccurate research conclusions and poor communication between author and reader. The major section of the paper addresses the critical impact of flexible automation on human workers and on organizations, specifically the areas of (1) worker isolation from other humans; (2) worker communication relationships with robots; (3) worker stress; (4) supervision, control, and information transmission in the computer controlled factory; and (5) human self-esteem vis-a-vis computer controlled robots. (FL)