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Paul Welty, PhD AI, WORK, AND STAYING HUMAN

· found · management

Bookmark: Workplace loneliness isn’t getting better [new data]

Discover new data revealing the rise of workplace loneliness and its impact on mental health. Explore effective solutions to foster connection at work.

I’ve just read an eye-opening piece from aaask on the persistent issue of workplace loneliness. The article examines how both remote and on-site workers are experiencing a disconnect despite numerous communication tools. It’s particularly striking how this loneliness is affecting mental health and career growth. Their exploration of solutions like increased virtual check-ins and casual conversations is well worth a look.

“In fact, 76% of people said workplace loneliness has negatively impacted their mental health, with 40% adding that the impact had been severe.”

Workplace Loneliness Isn’t Getting Better [New Data]

The agent-shaped org chart

Every real org has the same topology: principal, role-holder, specialists. Staff AI maps onto it, node for node, and the cost collapse shows up in the deliverables that were always just human-handoff overhead.

AI as staff, not software

Two frames for what AI is doing to work. The tool frame makes tools smarter. The staff frame makes roles unnecessary. Those aren't the same product, the same company, or the same industry.

Knowledge work was never work

Knowledge work was always coordination between humans who couldn't share state directly. The artifacts were never the work. They were the overhead — and AI just made the overhead optional.

The work of being available now

A book on AI, judgment, and staying human at work.

The practice of work in progress

Practical essays on how work actually gets done.

Shopping is the last mile

Every meal planning app treats cooking as the hard problem and shopping as a logistics detail. They have it backwards. Cooking is mostly solved. Shopping is the last mile.

Watch what they buy, not what they say

Forms ask people to declare preferences. Receipts record what they did. The gap between the two is where revealed preference lives, and it's wider than most product teams admit.

What the API decides not to show you

Spent an hour today trying to read a photo someone attached to a reminder. The bytes are right there on disk. Apple won't let me see them. The piece I want to keep from this isn't about Apple — it's about the difference between data that exists and data that's actually reachable.

Article analysis: Amazon indicates employees can quit if they don’’t like its return-to-office mandate

Amazon tells employees unhappy with its return-to-office policy to seek other jobs, highlighting tensions between corporate mandates and remote work...

Bookmark: Dell’s CEO, michael dell, requires full in-office work starting from march

Dell CEO Michael Dell mandates full in-office work from March, emphasizing the benefits of face-to-face collaboration for improved team performance.

Article analysis: The AI advantage: Why return-to-office mandates are a step back

Explore how return-to-office mandates hinder workplace progress and trust, while AI-driven hybrid models boost employee morale and productivity.