Fear In The Workforce: Why Workers Are Afraid And What To Do About It.

This week I had a variety of meetings with companies and looked at some new research on the impact of AI in the workplace. Despite all the positive things going on in the economy, a strong signal came back about fear. A large percentage of workers are fearful for their jobs and the impact of AI, so I unpacked the topic this week.

(Note: this podcast was recorded on a long walk so it’s slightly warbly but I cleaned it up pretty well.)

I know you’re all going through change and AI transformation work right now, so let us know if we can help – the issues in this podcast are important ones to deal with as you reorganize, push, and encourage people to move faster in the direction of AI.

Some Interesting Reading

From “The Information” this week, discussing Meta’s AI team.

“In his essay, Blankevoort wrote that “Meta has a culture of fear,” created in part by its performance review system and rolling layoffs. Meta in February laid off 5% of its staff, or about 3,600 people, and said those cuts were based on performance. The company also said at the time that it might use future performance reviews to cut low performers as well.”

“Instead of being motivated by our mission, or an aspiration to build something great, many people I’ve talked to are motivated by the fear of getting fired,” Blankevoort wrote. “This attitude runs through the company like a metastatic cancer.” It has led to a culture of “every person for themselves,” as well as “land-grabbing, project-sniping, stealing work,” he added.

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