Layoffs

Career | Tech

Linked – Junior tech workers can’t find jobs. Are coding boot camps in trouble?
ByMike McBride July 15, 2024July 14, 2024 Reading Time: 2 minutes

The job market for people who can write code has fallen apart. Partly because of AI and partly because companies over-invested in engineers and tools that never could be as successful as they thought. (Remember when we were all going to be hanging out in the metaverse?) Of course, the people running these companies weren’t held accountable for those choices, but I’m past hoping that will ever happen.

So, now the mantra will be “learn AI,” at least until that market isn’t everything companies are currently promising and we go through this whole thing again.

It’s best not to get comfortable with anything in the current tech marketplace. The skills in high demand today won’t be those in high demand five years from now. If you’re entering college and embarking on a technology major, the tech will be changed by the time you graduate.

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Tech

Linked – The Real AI Revolution Will Be Invisible
ByMike McBride July 1, 2024June 28, 2024 Reading Time: 1 minute

That doesn’t mean we won’t make a mess of things getting there. Some employers will go through rounds of layoffs, hoping to replace workers with AI writers, photographers, coders, etc. Plenty of companies will rush to add something they can call “AI” to their products to look innovative, and everyone will stumble along learning what AI might be useful for.

Then, we’ll end up using the AI built into all the same tools we use now.

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Mental Health

We should be honest about the mental health impacts of layoffs
ByMike McBride April 11, 2024April 11, 2024 Reading Time: 2 minutes

Every person you lay off from your business is ten times more likely to try and take their own life.

I don’t think senior executives think in those terms. I suspect many are thinking about juicing the bottom line, getting a little stock price bump, maybe making things more efficient, etc. I think large investors think about what is best for their stock values. That’s why CEOs announce layoffs of 10% of the workforce and are rewarded with $100 million bonuses.

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Career

Linked – New data shows shortsighted companies will try to replace workers with AI
ByMike McBride April 10, 2024April 9, 2024 Reading Time: 1 minute

Many people who make hiring and firing decisions don’t think about AI as a tool for better work-life balance or increased productivity in their workforce. They are planning on replacing their workforce. These are likely the same ones who view layoffs as a strategy to tweak stock prices and see employees as numbers on a financial statement instead of human beings. Increasingly, they are being put in charge by shareholders who see employees similarly – a bothersome cost.

We should not be surprised that younger generations want to blow it all up.

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Career

The Royal Family Provides an Example of What Happens When People Are Left Without Information
ByMike McBride March 26, 2024March 25, 2024 Reading Time: 2 minutes

The people who follow the Royal Family were left without further information about Kate after her original surgery. We can argue about what information they were entitled to, and I’d agree they weren’t entitled to any. Still, we saw a large group of people filling in the blanks with some of the wildest conspiracy theories we’ve seen anywhere when no information was forthcoming.

Imagine what happens on Teams or Slack about your company when information is unavailable.

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Career

Dell Is Going Through a Layoff That You Won’t Notice
ByMike McBride March 18, 2024March 21, 2024 Reading Time: 2 minutes

If you’ve heard the term “quiet firing” recently, this is what it means. It is not directly cutting head count but making it likely that some percentage of employees will leave due to your decisions.

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