It's the American way to disempower workers. Tech people used to have a moat called expertise and management believes AI has made that obsolete.

Eventually workers in America will need to fight for power, probably through unions. That is the time honored way. There will be a lot of degradation and impoverishment on the way there I think. Fasten your seatbelts.

I would also like to offer a warning based on what I've discussed with people who can relate. If you strip away worker's protections against retaliation and humiliation, this is not something only the corporation can do. It opens up corporations from retaliation from workers who were laid off. The current rules of engagement are cruel but I would fear the wrath of people corporate America has wronged.

I know someone who was laid off and the company did everything they could to tarnish their reputation in order to justify it. Even after a few years, this was still following him and affected everything they did whether work related or not. After the non-disparagement period ended from the severance agreement, they went medieval and made sure the company was humiliated. The way they speak about it, I think they will keep this grudge to their grave.

Every single star and celebrity and guest always spoke glowingly of their employers and work environment. They lovingly remembered how awesome everyone was on-set, and how it was a joy to lay down tracks for this album, and a privilege to work with the A-listers, and they're so thankful that they are preparing the Oscar speech even now. Are they telling the truth or just putting on another show? Well, public figures don't really have privacy to scowl and gossip to their celebrity friends, so either they 100% keep up the ruse, or it's gospel truth that they enjoy those jobs, or they earn a bad reputation, and never get work again. Perhaps that contributes to all the addiction cases: acting out a role even in your free time?

And this phenomenon is writ large on LinkedIn where anyone can see legions of new employees celebrating their awesome new job, can't wait to get started, and promotions and milestones are joyous occasions and often you'll be real hard-pressed to find an authentic employee experience that disparages employer or calls their ethics/integrity into question. But the pseudonymous accounts and cloaked identities on other social media are always hysterical and dramatic in their denouncements and their narratives of horror stories from behind closed doors. I mean, some folk are willing to disparage and accuse anyone: their parents, landlord, their church leadership, but that is known as "shitting where you eat", right?

My new-hire experiences haven't been welcoming or celebratory: they've been more along the lines of "ugh we're so desperate we plucked this guy's CV out and he's a warm body who sorta fits our profile and culture, so we're gonna squeeze him for everything for as long as it suits us, while keeping our options open when he inevitably bails again"

So I suppose both realities are true. I've seen LOTS of workplaces with amazing morale and the employees are genuinely pleased to serve there, and they are loyal and they place such high value on their career path and job security, that they do put a positive spin on anything and everything, you know, "like a family here" [a non-dysfunctional one]

So I suppose both phenomena are true at once; there is good and bad, and unfortunately some people like me are just so psychologically damaged by trauma and rejection, that we can't find a safe space anywhere, and we can't find the words to compliment employers or say kind things about them anywhere, and people like me, well, we just aren't cut out for careers or steady employment whatsoever.