AI Apocalypse, Workaholics Anonymous & Pyjamas
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #197 ❤️
This week we’re doing a deep dive into how we work with AI, after a recent scare from a thinktank predicting an AI jobs apocalypse, we’re asking if you’re seeing the glass half empty or half full?
Video game actors and wellbeing experts are coming down hard on one side…
Plus, we look at two opposite sides of the work spectrum, with one being attending workaholics anonymous, and the other going to work in actual pyjamas.
Let’s get into it.
Were you forwarded this? Not a subscriber? 👉 Sign up here
#1 - “AI Apocalypse”
A thinktank is trying to freak us all out by predicting that almost 8 million jobs could be lost to AI in a “jobs apocalypse” in the UK, with women, younger workers and lower paid workers being most at risk.
The Institute for Public Policy Research concluded that entry-level, part-time and administrative jobs were the most likely to be replaced by AI in the next three to five years by generative AI technologies which can read and create text, data and software code.
The IPPR noted that the first wave of AI adoption, where we currently are, is already putting jobs at risk with the ability to replace 11% of tasks – specifically “routine cognitive tasks” like database management, scheduling and stocktaking.
They warn that the second wave could start affecting increasingly higher earning jobs and 59% of tasks overall, by impacting “non-routine” tasks, creation tasks like creating the databases to be managed, and jobs like copywriting and graphic design.
The report got even scarier, saying that the “worst-case scenario”. – always the most interesting – could be the displacement of almost eight million jobs.
But what about the extra productivity to be gained, we hear you cry? Well, according to the numbers at IPPR that will be cancelled out with a growth of zero within three to five years.
Fantastic.
And is there a best-case scenario? Of course.
The best-case scenario would be full augmentation of the workforce with generative AI, with no jobs lost, and a 4% increase in the size of the economy – about 92 billion a year.
So, are you glass half empty or glass half full?
#2 – AI And Video Game Actors
You might be playing computer-generated avatars when you’re knocking people down in GTA, but the voices are real people – or at least they were.
The video game industry has come a long way from pixelated images and robot voices – Hollywood names like Jodie Comer, Idris Elba, Megan Fox, and David Harbour have all leant their voices to games in the past few years.
However, with advances in AI the industry may soon be doing a 360 on the artificially generated voices.
Some studios are experimenting with tools that can clone and alter voices along with generating audio from text, giving them the ability to generate an endless number of characters and conversations, and meaning they’ll be needing much fewer real live voice actors – putting them on the chopping block as predicted by the IPPR above.
Some of these actors obviously fear that games companies would use AI to reproduce their voices and push down the value of their work – with many worried they may have already signed contracts in the past that will allow companies to now replicate their voices.
And with the tech improving by leaps and bounds, it’s never been easier to steal a person’s voice. Something that took six hours at the beginning of 2022, three hours at the beginning of 2023, now only takes three seconds.
Maybe in 2025 AI will be able to replicate your voice before you even speak…
So we’ve heard from the scary think tank about how AI will steal all of our jobs, but what about working with technology, how does that affect us?
The Institute for the Future of Work analysed the impact of wellbeing of four groups of technologies that are ever more prevalent in our working lives – AI software, surveillance devices, robots and the classic ICTs (information and communication technologies).
Results found that the first three are no good for us – the more workers are exposed to technologies in these three categories, the worse their health and wellbeing, versus people who use laptops and instant messaging at work, which had a more positive effect on their wellbeing.
So, obviously you’re going to feel better if you’re communicating with your colleagues via IM than if your boss is using a tracking device to measure how long you’re taking on your break a la Amazon – so far so obvious.
What’s interesting is the research that shows that the three technologies on the naughty step – which includes generative AI - have been found to potentially “exacerbate job insecurity, workload intensification, routinisation and loss of work meaningfulness, as well as disempowerment and loss of autonomy, all of which detract from overall employee wellbeing”.
For example, if you spent years learning to do something, and doing it gives you meaning in your work life, the fact that it’s now easier and quicker to ask generative AI to do it at the push of a button – i.e. database creation or graphic design as mentioned in the IPPR report above – might be slightly demoralizing. Hey, actually, it might be really demoralizing.
We do ponder if human-made may become a mark of quality in the future in spreadsheets just as it is now in artisan created furniture? Until then, we may have a few depressed database lovers in the workplace to contend with.
#4 - Can You Really Be A Work Addict?
Workaholism is hitting the headlines this week after playwright and screenwriter James Graham talked about Workaholics Anonymous meetings, and denouncing the fact that workaholism isn’t treated as seriously as substance additctions like alcoholism.
He stated that although the phrase “workaholic” is thrown around too often as though it is a bad habit, it’s actually “a pattern of behaviour that slowly kills you” like any other addiction.
While research suggests that one in four people suffer from workaholism, with women and middle-aged boomers being the most affected, so far there’s no medical definition, understanding of why it happens or cure of how to solve it.
In fact, for many people, it’s seen as a desirable state, that they and their employers want to keep going.
One woman who attends Workaholics Anonymous meetings stated that being a workaholic meant that she had set no boundaries when it came to work and described her career as going “crazy well”.
Certain industries seem to trigger workaholism more than others. Workaholics Anonymous members have set up specific groups for vicars, entrepeneurs, teachers and doctors.
What do these jobs have in common? A tendance to be always on – entrepeneurs and vicars have no work hours, while teachers and doctors work long hours and often take their work home.
One of the risks of the new reality of work – hybrid and globalisation – may be that we can now all fall into the category of being always on.
We work at home on our laptops, work blends out into personal time, and with colleagues in different time zones our work hours could be, well, all the time.
Should we all get little lock boxes to put our laptops in prison at the end of the working day?
#5 - Gen Z Takes Workwear To Bed
The hashtag “gross outfits for work” is currently trending across China as one Gen Zer shared their work outfit which consisted of slippers, PJ bottoms and a brown jumper dress, finished off with a pair of holey woollen gloves. There is also a balaclava in the mix.
Why?
Well, it seems to be a revolution of sorts, as the youngest generation to enter the workplace rebel against the tight-laced tradition of their peers by showing them that for them, workwear should be relaxed – and in some cases, completely hideous.
Dressing grossly to work also sends the message that you don’t value what you’re doing. Just like taking the bins out, this job is something you’re doing because you have to – and you’ve got nothing to prove to anyone looking.
It goes hand in hand with the “Tangping” movement which means “lying flat” – where Chinese youth are shunning hard work for a more carefree life.
Could it catch on elsewhere? Well, maybe it already has. According to a survey at the end of last year, one third of people working at home in the UK do it in their pyjamas…
Be honest, what are you wearing right now?
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Toxic Work Stories
While a toxic workplace goes against everything we stand for, the voyeur in all of us loves the gossip that comes from a toxic workplace story, right?
This list compiles the best, or worst, reasons that people were finally pushed to leave theirs, from headphones being confiscated to increase productivity, to being ignored because nobody wanted to train them, it’s a juicy read, and what-not-to-do list for all employers.
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.