Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #184
Rolling in to Mardi Gras up on two wheels
When you work remotely, you may find yourself living in a place where Tuesday is a state holiday, but your workplace is not in the same state, and so it’s not a work holiday.
It’s very important that you take the day off and enjoy it with the rest of your community.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. For each issue, I will share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and key insights into privacy, security, and legal technology.
You can learn more about me here: Mike McBride Online.
And so, as I wrap up this week, I’m looking forward to the four-day weekend I’m going to have to take in all of the Mardi Gras activities (LSU gymnastics Mardi Gras meet, Baton Rouge Spanishtown parade, and Traditional Cajun Mardi Gras run included!) and get a break from the recent insanity of my professional life.
There is one thing about that insanity I wanted to share with y’all. Part of it has been volunteering as a session coordinator for the upcoming ILTA Evolve Conference, April 30 - May 2. I’ve been conducting short interviews with potential speakers for my sessions, and I have met some very smart people in the process.
This gives me hope about the LegalTech space. I’m looking forward to working with them and putting together some great educational sessions!
Careers and the Workplace
Or is it AI-Washing?
I can see why publicly proclaiming that you’re being innovative with new technology to reduce your headcount is a better alternative to admitting your firm isn’t doing well or to publicly blaming US policy. It might not be the whole truth, though. Usually, when there are large layoffs, the truth is a questionable idea anyway. AI just created another way to stretch it. In this case, Baker McKenzie may see a path in which new technology reduces the need for 10% of its staff. They may also be using that excuse to cover up failure, too.
Either way, 700 people are out of a job, and it’s become so routine that I fear it no longer raises an eyebrow. That’s the truly scary part.
Speaking of layoffs, the IT industry shed jobs again in January.
This seems excessive, so why are so many companies treating employees poorly? - Turnover costs exceed $45K per worker, report finds
Artificial Intelligence
This should set off some alarm bells:
Why a lack of governance will hurt companies using agentic AI
Only 27% of organizations say their governance frameworks are mature enough to monitor and manage AI systems effectively.
Speaking of a lack of governance - The viral AI agent Moltbot is a security mess - 5 red flags you shouldn’t ignore (before it’s too late)
Zoom Changing how AI Note-takers Can Be Used - Will Microsoft Follow?
The first paragraph makes it obvious that you can’t be an unnamed guest in a Zoom meeting and invite your AI to take notes. That makes sense.
The second adds a requirement: you must also attend the meeting. No more sending your AI to take notes for you while you spend your time elsewhere.
It’s not the AI:
Related:
Training and Development
This is a good question, and the article contains some good commentary from experts in the field:
How should we design and deliver learning in 2026?
Worth Reading - The new Women in the Workplace report is pretty dire
Let me get this straight:
You’re actively disinterested in the career development of people who work for you because they are female.
You are limiting advancement to only part of your workforce.
Your actions are causing some of your best employees to disengage, not seek to improve themselves, and eventually leave.
You’ll take that disengagement as a sign that women “just aren’t ambitious.”
I can’t even.
Mental Health in the Workplace
Is there room for calm in your meetings?
Mora’s advice is to slow down, pause after someone finishes speaking, take a breath before coming off mute, and slow your speech.
I think those are great ideas that I plan to spend a little more time on and bring to the meetings I host in order to bring calm to the whole team. But then I started thinking about the many meetings I attend each week, and how few of them feel anything like that. They ooze anxiety, tension, and focus on “getting through” the agenda at lightning speed before the next meeting comes at us with even more of the same.
They make us feel more distracted and uneasy, not less.
A few more notes on mental health at work:
That last one hit home for me. I once had a manager who fancied himself an amateur therapist who could help me. This was 18 months or so after I had returned to work after a mental health issue caused me to take leave. I didn’t last a year on that team. My previous manager had been there during my leave and told me she was available if I needed her, but left it up to my therapist and me to figure out how I could continue working safely. I should have stayed with her team.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
What are we doing? - An AI plush toy exposed thousands of private chats with children
Also - Notepad++ Hijacked by State-Sponsored Hackers - I know many of my eDiscovery friends have been Notebook++ fans when it came to editing load files. You may want to go read that.
They thought it would be cute and heartwarming, assuming we wouldn’t pay attention to how creepy the technology actually is when applied to everything else. Why so many people hate Ring’s ‘Search Party’ Super Bowl ad?
That’s all, folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put into sharing this with you each week.