[Havoc]

> But something shifted.

The powers that be realized an anxiety riddle fearful workforce can get stuff done too just fine as long as they don’t have a better option and you dangle the occasional carrot.

So as long as all corporations move roughly in lockstep you can drastically change conditions without much consequences

It’s a bit like the first big news website implementing a paywall was outrageous and deemed suicide. But if everyone does it…

[int_19h]

There will be consequences, they'll just take some time to set in. But morale is in the gutter across the company now, and a lot of people who would previously go above and beyond to maintain some level of software quality have thrown in the towel now, since this last round of layoffs, by virtue of who was targeted, very clearly demonstrated that the company doesn't actually care about any of that one bit, and the sole reason to perform is to ensure that you stay above the cut (and even that's hardly a guarantee when whole teams get laid off).

Aside from that, there's also the matter of fewer people tasked with the same amount of things. The official line on that is that AI makes the remaining employees more productive. The reality is that it's nowhere near good enough for many products, so it just means overworked people making more mistakes and burning out faster.

[BehindBlueEyes]

There were already too few people for the tasks before this round of layoffs. The working order has been "do more with less, use AI" for over a year.

Every MS FTE whom I knew enough to have that kind of conversation with was stretched thin to the breaking point. Now half their team is gone, and the show must go on apparently. It does not seem viable to me, not even with AI.

[hyfgfh]

Yeah, now they have AI, Artificial Insecurity

just another tool to push us to work more for less

It don't work, but you better learn it and use it, because it will replace you and also now you got to delivery 30% more