This Week's Work Problem: Leadership has a vision. A plan is not included.
Sometimes the most stressful part of work isn't the change itself but pretending that the change makes sense.
Thursdays mean you officially have permission to mentally leave the meeting.
No, but really, I have a feeling a lot of us have left a meeting lately and wondered if we somehow missed the important part. Everyone else is nodding, the slides keep moving, and somehow you’re left with more questions than answers.
It’s not that you don’t understand the words being said, but nobody has connected the dots between the big vision and the job you do every day.
This week’s submission reminded me just how exhausting that can be, especially when it comes to a big technological shift like AI.
The situation:
I work in an operational support role at a company that’s going all in on AI. My team has been given very little direction on how we’re supposed to support that shift, and recent planning meetings left us with more questions than answers. The only clear directive was to take on more work than we can realistically accomplish, so AI becomes a “forcing function” to increase productivity, and then find metrics to prove it’s working. It feels like the conclusion has already been decided, and we’re being asked to justify it while potentially automating parts of our own jobs. Morale is low, everyone feels directionless, and I’m struggling to stay motivated. How do you navigate a workplace where leadership seems more focused on proving AI’s value than giving people a clear purpose?
