Exercising our humanity

We need to feel human at work.

Image created via Midjourney

I've been thinking a lot about "humanity" lately. It's certainly fitting, with the Olympics playing in the background. I watch athletes — who have worked and trained for years — fight for a medal. One of my favorite moments was watching Australian high jumper Nicola Olyslagers. She ran toward the bar with the biggest grin on her face. And when she missed and knocked the bar over, she popped back up with the same giant smile. Her joy was palpable. (And she won a silver medal.)

Yet wedged in the middle of the Olympics was an ad from Google Gemini that was the polar opposite of humanity. A male voice narrates that his daughter looks up to athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Daughter wants to send a fan letter to Sydney, which dad says needs to be "extra special." So he asks Google Gemini for help composing the letter...

Souce: my screenshot

There aren't many things more out of touch with the human condition than this ad. We don't need AI to replace the most heartfelt moments in our lives. The beauty of a child's letter to a favorite athlete is its authenticity. I think it's another example of the disconnect between corporations and employees; between profits and people.

We work to exercise our humanity

A few days ago, Intel announced the layoffs of 15,000 people and will stop all non-essential work. The company is trying to save more than $10 billion in costs next year, a move that sounds like the company is trying to save itself from a death spiral. Earlier this year, CNBC reported that the company was struggling to stay relevant, even though it had once dominated the chip industry.

As I read the description "Stop all non-essential work" I thought, "How sad for the employees." Everything now will be about money and only money. A screenshot from an internal meeting shows that the company is cutting many employee perks. I wondered how it could come to this: how Intel didn't see the decline months, or even years ago, and now has to resort to such drastic measures to save itself.

It has to be difficult for the employees who survive the layoffs. As Rory Sutherland, vice chairman of Ogilvy UK said in an interview with

Lenny Rachitsky

, "We go into work, to some extent, to exercise our humanity." Sutherland says that persistent cost-cutting has "effectively destroyed much of the pleasure of the workplace."