The Most Preposterous Bullshit: "AI Can Solve Burnout!" (ROFL)

Here is a good, long articles from NBC News about various professions where people are burnt to a crisp and work 36-hour shifts sometimes.

Whoever wrote this article does a delicate dance of blaming “under-staffing” on various mindset shifts within COVID, which is part of the story for sure. The other part is that management in multiple industries is clueless as to who does what, who is burnt out, and will often spend three years or more saying “We’ll make it easier next week!” to exasperated colleagues.

The thing is, customer demands don’t cease even when a place is short-staffed. I bartend sometimes and you see it a lot in that world. You’ll be one person dealing with 50 people, and all of them think they’re the top dog in your world. It can be exhausting, no doubt. It’s definitely much harder than most white-collar work.

The problem is that some of the under-staffing comes because labor is a huge cost, and at a time when investors still want to see returns despite a generally-skittish marketplace around inflation and more, bosses shed labor to be seen as cost-containing. But when you cut labor, you burn out everyone who remains. Most bosses kinda sorta know this, but don’t usually act upon it.

That’s why the whole development of AI is scary. Most Executives at companies literally are bonus’ed off of cost containment. If you can get more for yourself by giving certain roles to machines and algorithms, you will. We are being sold AI as “a time-freer” and “a massive productivity hack.” It can be those things. But as it helps you find some time to play classical piano, you also may lose work hours, lose your job, and not be able to make ends meet. Anyone hiring for piano gigs?

So we exist in this weird cycle:

1. Places are under-staffed because people leave and management doesn’t seem to care, so the others flee for greener pastures.
2. The remaining people are burnt out.
3. Maybe AI could take all or some of their job, but then they wouldn’t have a job.
4. So could AI cure burnout? A little bit — but at the expense of, uh, paying basic bills.

Dicey.

What’s your take on burnout and whether AI can help with these supposed “staffing crunches?”