The “correct” attitude

In one layoff announcement after another, we hear that AI can now do the work of a great many people, which is why far fewer people are needed to do the work. If, for the moment, we take that assertion at face value, this still leaves an obvious alternative path: instead of reducing the number of workers, companies could reduce the amount of working time. That is, rather than laying off twenty percent of the workforce, they could have everyone work twenty percent less. In fact, I’d venture that a great number of knowledge workers would be more than happy to take a twenty percent pay cut in exchange for a four-day work week.1 Time is very often more valuable than cash. But the steady drumbeat of layoffs suggests that no member of the C-suite has even considered this path. Why not? It could hardly be more clearly stated that the workers taken in by the big companies are a small “elite,” not because they have higher levels of skill, but because they have been chosen from a mass of…