Millennials Don't Want to Quit. They Want to Get Laid Off.
🔗 https://www.fastcompany.com/91502603/millennials-dont-want-to-quit-they-want-to-get-laid-off
You're Not Burnt Out. You're Done.
🔗 https://midlifemavenmuse.substack.com/p/youre-not-burnt-out-youre-done
What 81,000 People Want from AI
🔗 https://www.anthropic.com/features/81k-interviews
AI Brain Fry
🔗 https://theworkforward.substack.com/p/ai-brain-fry
In Episode 50, Jenni Field and Chuck Gose are back together — Jenni returning from a trip to Japan and Chuck recording live from Las Vegas during Transform — to dig into four stories shaping the future of work, careers, and our relationship with AI.
The first story explores what's being called "career dysmorphia," with nearly six in ten millennial workers privately hoping for a layoff rather than choosing to leave on their own. A survey of 2,000 Gen Z and millennial workers found 37% dissatisfied with their roles and 55% unsettled in their careers. Jenni pushes back on the idea that this is purely a workplace problem, arguing it's really about personal agency. Chuck adds that with AI eliminating entry-level roles and 76% of HR professionals surveyed expecting significant hiring reductions, Gen Z may arrive to find there's no ladder at all.
The second story looks at women in their 40s and 50s leaving corporate roles in growing numbers — not because of burnout, but because, as McKinsey researcher Lareina Yee frames it, it's the absence of reciprocity. Chuck notes that the true cost of these departures — estimated at up to 213% of salary — still fails to capture the ripple effect on the teams left behind. Jenni connects RTO mandates as the tipping point, the straw that breaks the camel's back after years of consistently poor leadership behaviours stacking up.
The third story centres on Anthropic's study of nearly 81,000 Claude users across 159 countries and 70 languages — described as the largest and most multilingual qualitative study ever conducted on AI. Jenni and Chuck explore the striking geographic divide, with workers in lower- and middle-income countries far more optimistic about AI than those in Western Europe and North America, and question whether the dominant Western mindset of efficiency and productivity is a form of greed compared to the learning and opportunity lens seen elsewhere.
The fourth story introduces "AI brain fry" — a term coined by a Harvard Business Review study from BCG researcher Gabriella Rosen Kellerman — describing a specific form of cognitive overload from maintaining constant oversight of AI output, already affecting 14% of US workers. Jenni draws a sharp parallel to the long-established research on multitasking, questioning whether this is truly a new phenomenon or simply the same cognitive limits colliding with a tool of unprecedented scale. Chuck's advice to comms teams: be open, share your workflows, and talk to your manager — because the teams doing that are measurably reducing fatigue and doing better.
Want to find out more about Chuck's work and ICology — check out the community and how to become a member: https://www.joinicology.com/
Jenni's a regular speaker and consultant on leadership credibility and internal communication. Find out more about how to learn from her and work with her: https://thejennifield.com/