Did They Ever Give a Damn?

Early in my career, a company hired a man as a marketing exec. He was brought in above me in a newly created role. He deftly set me up so he could fire me.

I delivered results. I built things that mattered. I gave that company everything I had. Didn’t matter. I was replaced. By someone who played the bro club game.

That's when I started my consulting business. I didn't leave corporate because I saw the light. I was pushed out in a sneaky, nasty way. By people I had trusted.

I didn't want to live like this anymore. It wasn’t the first time and I knew it wasn’t the last. I saw the game and decided to just leave the table.

I built my own business and spent thirty-five years helping companies see what they couldn't see. Loved it. The world evolved. Women expanded our reach and range in business.

I thought we were moving on forever.

Not even close.

This week, I read about Jill.

Jill worked at a major enterprise software vendor for three decades. Technical writer and instructor. High performance reviews every year. Last year, the company asked her to document her workflows to train their AI systems. She did what they asked.

On March 31st, she was driving to back surgery when her manager called. She was laid off. $300,000 in unvested stock disappeared overnight. She couldn't pay for her post-surgery prescriptions.

When I read her story, I didn't just feel sympathy. I felt it in my gut and my heart. Been there, done that. A man replaced me. An algorithm replaced her.

The weapon changed. The game didn't.

Jill isn't alone. Cynthia gave the same company 19 years as a senior director. Her words after being let go: "This is a job I was so dedicated to for 19 years and gave everything to, and none of it matters."

Nina worked 33 years as a senior security manager. One of the same company's very first employees, over 40 years of loyal work. She was fired in the same sweep.

Termination emails from "BIG COMPANY Leadership" arrived at 6am. No warning from managers. Immediate system lockout. Up to 30,000 people. In a single day.

Multiple workers told TIME they felt they had been told to train the AI that would replace them. The tools produced what one called "slop." They documented their own expertise and the company used it to justify eliminating them.

More is coming. Still heavily focused at women.

79% of employed women in the US work in jobs at high risk of automation. For men it's 58%. Among the workers at highest risk with the least ability to recover, 86% are women.

Female-dominated jobs are almost twice as likely to be targeted for AI replacement.

The roles women were funneled into are the first roles they target. The roles that hold companies together. The roles nobody notices until they're gone.

The company's market cap sits above $400 billion. The company just reported its best growth quarter in 15 years. The CEO briefly became the richest man in the world. They raised $50 billion to build AI data centers.

Workers got one month of health coverage. They had to sign legal waivers to receive any severance at all.

This is not just Big Company. Another CEO bragged that AI could do "all of the jobs that we humans do." He cut 700 customer service workers. Quality collapsed. Customers revolted. The company quietly rehired humans at lower wages, then went public with a valuation of $19.65 billion. The humans got fired. The stock got rich.

55% of companies that executed AI-driven layoffs now regret it. Half will quietly rehire, offshore or at lower pay. Firing people for AI capabilities that don't even exist yet.

What does it mean when a company can tell you to hand over your experience, then use it to erase you?

I think it means you were never the point. Your output was the point. Humanity being ditched for the glory of the bottom line as the 2% grow their wealth. While employees wonder how to pay their rent or buy food.

Women are openly targeted now.

The system has always treated us this way. AI just took the mask off.

A man replaced me. An algorithm replaced Jill. The details change with generations. The message doesn't.