Pink Slip Pride<\/p>\n
Workforce reductions are no longer an admission that companies are struggling;\u00a0instead, CEOs are using them to boast about their investments in AI.<\/p>\n
As the Wall Street Journal reports<\/a>, CEOs are now bragging about shrinking their companies’ staff, highlighting a cooling job market and an unwavering commitment to automation at all costs.<\/p>\n Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg told investors last week that the telecom had been “very, very good” on headcount, meaning that “it’s going down all the time,” as quoted by the WSJ.<\/p>\n “Being honest about cost and head count isn\u2019t just allowed \u2014 it\u2019s rewarded,” Sloane & Co strategic advisor Zack Mukewa told the newspaper, noting that changes in how we view headcount reductions have become a “powerful kind of reframing device.”<\/p>\n Put simply, firing human workers has turned into a perverse point of pride among the C-suite class, a worrying new reality as executives continue to lay off thousands of workers<\/a> while simultaneously making deep investments in AI tech.<\/p>\n Super Pumped<\/p>\n Worse yet, the industry has shown few signs of fighting back.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m worried it\u2019s happening in plain sight with no blowback, no pushback, and it\u2019s going to become the norm,” Brookings Institution senior fellow Molly Kinder told the WSJ. “I don\u2019t think that\u2019s good news for the American worker.”<\/p>\n The brash and brutally honest tone of executives bragging about headcount reductions is reaching astonishing levels.<\/p>\n “CEOs are extremely excited about the opportunities that AI brings,” AI advisor Elijah Clark told Gizmodo<\/a> recently. “As a CEO myself, I can tell you, I’m extremely excited about it. I’ve laid off employees myself because of AI.”<\/p>\n “AI doesn’t go on strike. It doesn’t ask for a pay raise,” he added. “These things that you don’t have to deal with as a CEO.”<\/p>\n Others are taking on a slightly more optimistic tone, predicting that AI tech could lead to the creation of new types of jobs.<\/p>\n “Some jobs will be lost,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNN<\/a> last month. “Many jobs will be created and what I hope is that the productivity gains that we see in all the industries will lift society.”<\/p>\n