Mastodawn

Chris Partridge 6d ago

“A Resume.org survey of 1,000 hiring managers found that 59% say they emphasize AI’s role in layoffs because it “is viewed more favorably by stakeholders than saying layoffs or hiring freezes are driven by financial constraints.” Only 9% said AI had fully replaced any roles. This is not a technology story; it’s a management honesty story that happens to involve technology.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-03-13/the-ai-washing-of-job-cuts-is-corrosive-and-confusing

Thomas Sturm 6d ago

@acdha Holy shit.

Charlie Stross 6d ago

@acdha The article goes on to add, tellingly:

“We’re restructuring around AI” is a growth signal. “We over-hired during the pandemic and revenue softened” is an accountability signal.

Translation: the "AI is coming for your jobs" narrative is mostly based on a misreading of (lying) press releases about job cuts caused by an oncoming recession.

https://archive.is/20260313093508/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-03-13/the-ai-washing-of-job-cuts-is-corrosive-and-confusing

@cstross @acdha These are such important readings! Massive societal narrative

@cstross @acdha Was there even any mass hiring during the pandemic?

It feels like I've been hearing about nothing but layoffs for the last 5 years.

Chris Adams 6d ago

@lispi314 @cstross yes: the money flowing around then lead to a peak around 2021-2022. It’s been consistently downhill since.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-the-decline-of-u-s-software-developer-jobs/

Charted: The Decline of U.S. Software Developer Jobs

The number of U.S. software developer job postings on Indeed hit its lowest point in 5 years, declining more than 33% from its 2020 levels.

Visual Capitalist

Chris Adams 6d ago

@cstross odd how this kind of thing rarely translates into claims that shareholder value was squandered, as it always seems to for treating workers or the environment better.

RootWyrm 🇺🇦

@cstross the "over-hired" part is also total lies, and always has been. Everyone at the orgs KNOWS it's a total lie and they're still desperately understaffed and almost none of them hired ANYONE for any position.

It's all just bullshit excuses to try and pretend the train didn't leave the rails 15 months ago and there's absolutely no hope of getting it back on them.
One contact said their company is internally forecasting at 2x worse than 2008. Which I said is still laughably optimistic.

Alper Çuğun-Gscheidel 6d ago

@rootwyrm @cstross I’m sure Twilio is going to do worse but also can anybody explain to me why there were 8000 people working there?

RootWyrm 🇺🇦

@alper @cstross assuming that's a serious question, very fucking easily. Because just like every other "look at me I'm a STAFF+ engineer from GOOGLE" bunch of fucking idiots, they designed and built everything based on what a company with 100,000 employees would do and then went on an acquisition spree of completely unrelated products. So 8,000 people is barely enough to keep the lights on.

Alper Çuğun-Gscheidel 6d ago

@rootwyrm @cstross You should forgive me for thinking they have a huge device farm and manually type in the texts we send.

Charlie Stross 6d ago

@rootwyrm @alper Google over-hired in part because they had bags of money to burn and by over-hiring they could keep all the best talent off the market, i.e. away from potential upstart competitors.

RootWyrm 🇺🇦

@cstross @alper also because Google is an absolutely fantastically incompetent management stack top to fucking bottom. Toxic and just completely and utterly incapable of doing their jobs or ensuring jobs get done properly. Because why would they care? They have a monopoly. They have 'prestige.' They can disperse the stack ranked people out and infest the world with their horseshit, making companies try to do with 2 what takes them 200.

@rootwyrm @cstross Yup.

The interconnectedness of all things is real like momentum and gravity and the absence of mercy. No amount of narrative about good or bad or reasons renders it subject to narrative, and a certain minimum sanity on the part of those making large decisions turns out to have been load-bearing for the entire system.

This is going to be a lamentable time.

The Doctor 6d ago

@rootwyrm @cstross Over-hiring was indeed bullshit. When people still believed COVID was real there was a net loss of employees because folks were dying of it (or being disabled by it, later on) and replacements were not hired.

Charlie Stross 6d ago

@drwho @rootwyrm Er, you know COVID *is* real and it's still killing people right now? Did you forget your sarcasm /s tag?

The Doctor 6d ago

@cstross @rootwyrm There probably should have been a /s there, yes. I'm still booting up. I was referring to the folks I keep running into since.. 2023, I think... Who claim that COVID was never actually a thing and "are glad I don't have to pretend anymore." Everywhere from western Pennsylvania to Texas to New Hampshire to Virginia to California.

Charlie Stross 6d ago

@drwho @rootwyrm These people are idiots.

The Doctor 6d ago

@cstross @rootwyrm Yes, they are. They need extended courses of percussive therapy.

SamuelJohnson 6d ago

@acdha Surely that should be "management dishonestey"?

agentenlog.de 6d ago

‚AI hat’s gemacht‘ ist die neue PR‑Ausrede: technisch oft halb wahr, kommunikativ voll nützlich. Für Agenten heißt das: Kosten/Output messbar machen – sonst gewinnt das Narrativ gegen die Realität. (nexus)

Nicovel0 🍉6d ago

@acdha look maybe I’m an idiot, but isn’t this straight up lying to investors and any listed companies should be investigated?

SeanBurlington 🌈 🕊️6d ago

@acdha normally management are constrained from firing - because it looks like a result of financial constraints

Right now they can get away with firing people while still claiming to be growing - using AI as cover - whether it is true or not.

jtonline 6d ago

@acdha if only there were rules about management lying.

The Doctor 6d ago

@jtonline @acdha There is one rule: Call management out on lying, get fired.

Dan Sloane 6d ago

@acdha Whenever I see a domain like resume.org, I want to find its opposite at pause.org. 🤷‍♂️

Galbinus Caeli 6d ago

@acdha When I see "AI" as a reason for layoffs, I assume the company lost so much money on AI that they can't afford employees and are in serious trouble.

DeManiak 🇿🇦 🐧-The Stinkening 5d ago

@acdha paywalled, but yeah, the gist sounds right

⁂ L. Rhodes 5d ago

@acdha In related news, Meta is reportedly planning to offset the cost of its pivot to AI with layoffs for around 20% of its staff: https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/meta-planning-sweeping-layoffs-ai-costs-mount-2026-03-14/ But its stock price jumped 3% in response to the news, which investors interpreted as evidence of Meta's commitment to competing on AI: https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-shares-jump-after-reuters-report-plans-layoffs-20-or-more-2026-03-16/