Your role isn't coming back...

About 600,000 tech employees have lost their jobs since the heights of tech employment since COVID-19. However, with enough time, experience and wisdom, you can see it as yet another cycle of boom/bust. Since I started college, it's happened 3x - the dot com boom, the 2008 crises and now.

The brutal reality is that I suspect this is only the beginning. While there's a non-zero chance that LLMs and the current AI revolution might not realize its world-changing potential, there's also a non-zero probability that if most things hold true, then this is going to be another cycle where corporations will be rational to find the new mode of operation.

This new mode of operation is a rational one - it's one where one is trying to find where might I replace expensive humans with technology. It's a tale as old as time. However, if there is one thing we must learn from it, it's that the role we had isn't coming back.

Whatever is on the other side of this tunnel is not a return to normalcy - or at least normal as we knew it. There is a new normal. In this new world, there will be role for humans but it is not the same as we knew. I suspect we are already seeing some of these changes at play. Managers have gone from 5-6 reports to 15-20. Organizations are going to get (even) flatter. I hope it also comes with improvements to the performance review processes and the amount of meaningful work that people do - likely with the aid of AI.

Does this all translate to productivity improvements? I don't know. However, my suspicion is that like with anything - high agency people - curious, flexible and adaptable people will find a way to adapt and contribute. Heck, this could also mean that quite a few people who kept a corporate job for various reasons might decide to become entrepreneurs themselves and figure out ways to thrive even more.

There can be negative outcomes too. There's a very real human cost when it comes to layoffs. There are people who are dependent on the income, healthcare etc that good corporate jobs provide that will no longer have access. An evolutionary and revolutionary change is often slow and grueling when you go through them.

However, one thing is certain - your previous job isn't coming back. It's never going to be easy to go through this at the moment. Changes like this are fundamentally hard. If you feel lost, and you need someone to talk to, please feel free to reach out. I recommend you find support groups and mentors and process those feelings.

I want you to know that none of this is an indictment of who you are or what you do. I hope you will realize this sooner than later, but you are more than your resume, you are more than your role and you are certainly more than a whimsical decision by people who may not even know you when they made a decision.

However, you can be someone who can be cognitively flexible. You can work to look and accept reality. It will only make you a better person. Again, in the moment it is going to be hard to see. If you need to talk to someone, hit me up on email - I am gurupanguji@gurupanguji.com and I can do what I can to help.

My advice:

• Learn the new ropes. You are ahead of 90% of the rest of the folks
• Experiment with the new ropes and figure out what you want to do.
• With time you will realize that if you shift your perspective, you are given an opportunity to be ahead of many more.
• Maybe you will build things to help them. Maybe you will build the perfect role for yourself in this new world.

I wish you all the best. But remember, don't hold out hope that your old role is coming back.