Future of Work: Unpopular opinion - Job loss is a good thing

With the advent of AI and automation now already bringing large swathes of layoffs across the globe, job loss is inevitable. But unlike most people, I actually think it’s a good thing. It’s happened time and again throughout history, forcing roles to be redundant, people to pivot, and industries to grow. The pain and punishment in the moment is awful, particularly for the people impacted who lose their job and livelihood. But if we take a step back and shelve the emotion for a moment, we’d see that the job losses we’re seeing are the next evolution in the Future of Work. 

The bloated teams of the corporate world

I’ve long held the belief that most corporate teams are too big and the resources inefficiently used. As a Change Manager, I come in as an external, neutral, third-party and here’s what I see:

• Most teams have a handful of high performers that are carrying the rest of the team

• Poor performers are not performance-managed to improve or exit the organisation

• Most leaders wait for a restructure or redundancy to get rid of poor performers or problem employees (those who actively malign and sabotage the team and its work)

• Sometimes the problem employees are kept due to politics, perception or patriarchy

The problem with holding onto poor performers and problem employees is the high performers who are doing all your work for you get fed up and frustrated. They either burn out, leave for a place they are valued, or stay stuck and stifled and slowly deteriorate in their skills. 

The curse of empire builders

Often leaders still keep their bloated teams because many leaders, particularly Baby Boomers and Gen X, do not deliver any value of their own. Their sole role is to lead and manage people, often poorly. With a bit of leadership coaching and training, many managers could become great leaders but often this kind of support and development is given only to Executives and Senior Leaders. Line Managers, Middle Managers, and often even Heads Of and General Managers aren’t trained to be great leaders and get the best out of their teams and they are usually no longer on the tools or doing the doing which means the only “value” they bring is managing a group of people. The more people, the more justified they feel their role is. Through my Change Management work, I’ve come across so many leaders who are empire builders - they will keep their processes manual, they will create resistance and roadblocks, they will insist on hiring more headcount because that’s the way they grow their sense of power and purpose (and often incorrectly - job security). I think a lot of highly-paid senior leaders will be shocked when their roles are made redundant because their head count has decreased due to AI.

Roles have always disappeared

So if we think back to the not-too-distant future, we’ll see that every major technology innovation in human history has necessarily led to job loss. I think about the advent of the internet, and how bricks-and-mortar stores and services like Blockbuster, retail, and bank branches slowly declined. I think about the advent of the car, and all the horse poo shovellers that were out of a job. Even the advent of electricity - someone used to go light the gas street lamps every night. It’s true with AI that it’s on a bigger scale, and it also looks like a lot more women in professional, white-collar jobs will be affected than men who are often in manual, blue-collar jobs where automation has been slowly chipping away. But it will all come out in the wash, and as innovation speeds up, it makes sense that the consequence and scale of its impacts speed up too.

Why job loss at this time could be a blessing

So why my unpopular opinion? You might think I don’t like people and couldn’t care less about their life and livelihood. You couldn’t be further from the truth. I care deeply about people and about them reaching their fullest potential and happiness in this one life they’ve been given. That’s why I think there’s a silver lining to job loss. And no it’s not universal basic income, which I doubt will ever happen and probably shouldn’t as giving people free money can demotivate them and is too ripe for corruption as we’ve seen time and again. 

Instead, I think that if AI can take the menial, manual, repetitive jobs, it can open up the chance for more people to work on more creative projects, people-focused roles, and social and community initiatives. I think it will allow people to showcase their broad spectrum of skills and talents with slashie or all-rounder roles, jobs that are less about job title and more about the value the person brings. It will open up the opportunity for more people to become independent consultants like me, to work shorter-term but for a higher pay instead of draining constant low-paid 9-5. In many cases, industrial relations laws will need to change to accommodate these trends but I think they’ve needed to change for a long time because it’s been exactly a century since the 40-hour work week was introduced for factory workers and it’s clear full-time work hanging out for a 2-day weekend doesn’t actually make sense any more for most professionals. Companies would need to start rewarding specialist expertise, innovation, problem-solving and performance, rather than presenteeism and productivity (thinking that time spent is the same as value created). 

So yes - I think job loss is a good thing. 

What I think needs to be improved is how restructures, redundancies and layoffs are handled. Too often, notice is given and the impacted employees are not provided with the confidence or courage or mindset to carve a new path for themselves and help solve the problems and dream up the work that their leaders aren’t realising they are missing. And in fact, the most popular article on this blog is one titled: “HOW TO: Heal after restructure”. People are our greatest untapped potential - we just need to help them see it for themselves. 

All the best,

Lata xx

P.S. Did you know that through my Change Management consultancy Passion Pioneers, I offer a range of Change Strategy, Planning and Capability services. These include: Impact Assessments, Change Strategies, Change Risk Assessments, Change Plans, Key Messaging/Themes/Narratives, Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping, Business Readiness Approach and Checks, and Post Implementation Review. 

P.P.S. I also advise and coach change delivery into your project or team so you have long-term knowledge retention and capability built, and can lead other leadership capability, workshops, or outputs bespoke to your specific change or transformation. Packages range from $10,000-$50,000 to suit your budget and needs, with standalone workshops and training from $5,000.

P.P.P.S. I provide a complimentary Change Clarity Session to all new clients to scope your change at a high level and provide you a Change on a Page of change risks and opportunities, so it's a great idea to engage me early in your transformation as I can help you build the influence and impact you need to get your change signed off and kicked off. DM me on LinkedIn here or contact me via my Passion Pioneers website here to book yours.

I'm Lata Hamilton - the Founder & CEO of Passion Pioneers, a Change Management consultancy specialising in digital transformation, operating model changes, and new ways of working and leadership.

Grab my free Creative Launch Ideas Guide with 53 ways to bring your next Change and Transformation to life - download it here.

And if you'd like my help with your next change or building leadership capability for your team, get in touch with me here.