Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #140
Dell continues layoffs that aren't layoffs
A few weeks ago, I wrote that Dell’s announcement that remote employees could continue to work remotely but would not be eligible for promotions was just a round of layoffs by another name.
Whether you’re letting people go or creating an untenable situation to provoke people to leave, your goal is to cut staff.
I guess Dell didn’t cut enough because reports now say they are doubling down on making work miserable by tracking how much time is spent in the office.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. Each week, I’ll share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and important information about privacy, security, and legal tech.
You can find out all about me here - Mike McBride Online.
Dell responds to return-to-office resistance with VPN, badge tracking
Nothing says we’re like a family, like having no trust in your employees. Notice what they are measuring, the appearance of work, and collaboration using a metric of time spent in the office and connected to the network. It makes me wonder how they measure the effectiveness of all this office time. Are they doing anything to measure output and success, or just time in the office chair?
If you measure time in a chair, you’ll get time in a chair, but I’m pretty sure time in a chair is not Dell’s core business.
Is your workplace taking steps to make it harder for some people to work there? Is it just about reducing the numbers?
Careers and the Workplace
Speaking of reducing headcount, this TikTok clip of an interview with Mark Cuban hits hard at the end with the reality of what is coming. The interviewer repeats a few of the standard clichés about retraining workers displaced by AI and not replacing that many workers, only to be shot down by Cuban’s response. He’s right. What will you retrain people to do if you automate the automation and AI starts programming itself? His last question is a societal problem that too many of us are unwilling to address. What if it does displace five million or more workers? What do we do with them?
I’m not seeing enough people talk about this.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Employees Are Using AI Tools To Learn and to Help with Burnout
If you were burned out, overworked, and struggling to keep up with the demands of the job, and a tool promised to save you 30 minutes or more to get your work done, you'd figure out how to use it, too.
Of course, most of them are trying to use these tools without training and instruction from the company, so this is risky. One, because you have no idea what they are doing and what results they're getting. Two, they might become even more burned out trying to teach themselves before they get to the part where it helps them save time.
More on the 2024 Work Trend reporting -
AI at Work Is Here. Now Comes the Hard Part
The layoffs keep coming - Tech Layoff Consequences.
This is always an important reminder in light of those layoffs - Grow Your Professional Career Through Networking.
Training and Development
In case you didn’t think there were enough AI links in this issue - Gen AI is here to stay — here are 5 skills to help you stay relevant in the changing job market.
In the link above about people using AI to help with burnout, I mentioned the struggle to train users on a technology that seems to change weekly. Imagine how they feel - Tackling Employee Training Fatigue by Reimagining It.
Linked - How I Learned to Love Newsletters
Maybe it's just that the other options have gotten so poor that email looks so much better now. Since setting up my newsletters, I've subscribed to many more than I used to. I need the ability to get essential news in places where I'll see it and not hope I happen to see it come across a social media feed. That's not good enough.
What are some of your favorite newsletters to keep up with all this change?
Mental Health in the Workplace
Deloitte notes that just one in 10 women surveyed said their employer was taking concrete steps to fulfill its commitment to gender equality.
Hmm.
Being Too Busy Is Bad For Mental Health, Psychologist Warns.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
Linked - Time Is A Management Tool, Not A Pricing Tool
The entire point of AI tools is to create significant efficiencies across the business world. Not using them will end many client relationships. They won't accept that level of inefficiency. On the other hand, a firm investing in AI technology does not get a return on investment if their revenue method is hours worked.
Ralph Losey on the year's hot topic: Some Legal Ethics Quandaries on the Use of AI, the Duty of Competence, and AI Practice as a Legal Specialty.
One of the bigger issues with AI listed in that article is misinformation. Why does that matter?
I don’t know that I’d call them “hidden” - but plenty of people don’t know about them.
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 in each week to share this with you.