Instead of FUD, let’s talk about CUR.
Ok, I am making up that acronym. It’s probably not going to become commonplace. However, this seems like a good time to talk about uncertainty because it’s all around us. Much of it is completely out of our control, unless you work at a high-level of the government, in which case, stop reading and go do something about all of this!
I digress.
Instead, let’s talk about change and uncertainty in the workplace, because that is also at a fever pitch.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. For each issue, I will share information on careers and workplace culture, workplace mental health, talent development, and key insights into privacy, security, and legal technology.
You can learn more about me here: Mike McBride Online.
It’s not just about AI, either. For example, my workplace will be rolling out a bunch of changes this coming weekend. As confident as we are in the plan and the technology we are putting in place, we also know, without a doubt, that something will go wrong. That uncertainty can be debilitating. In your workplace right now, there are also a large number of people feeling that uncertainty. Some are feeling it more than others. I recently shared a resource on my other website about dealing with uncertainty as a survivor of childhood abuse:
Sharing - Intolerance of Uncertainty | How to Thrive in Ambiguity
In that piece, I talk about how uncertainty can affect survivors in different ways, because not knowing what’s coming feels incredibly dangerous to us. Uncertainty and instability at home taught us some very dangerous lessons. Those lessons don’t get deprogrammed easily. Right now, that description fits any number of your coworkers.
If there’s one thing I have learned, however, about uncertainty as I’ve tried to heal from my past, it is that the confidence that other people appear to have in the face of uncertainty doesn’t come from knowing everything will go perfectly. It comes from surviving even when things go wrong.
I remind myself all the time that I survived my childhood, I’ll survive this too. My message to others rolling out big changes is similar.
Something will go wrong. Something we didn’t see coming, didn’t plan for, and maybe didn’t know about. We’ll figure it out, fix it, and life will go on.
That backlog of surviving is how you build resiliency. But the advice I linked to in that post wouldn’t hurt either.
Worth Reading - Nobody Is Coming to Save Your Career
I still maintain that this is lesson one for young people coming into the workforce. I have one caveat to that now, and maybe being a manager has given me some additional insight into this, but here’s the flip side of that.
It doesn’t take much to stand out as a manager when no one is taking the time to even ask about the career goals of the people who report to you. The organization probably isn’t going to provide much in the way of talent development budget, but if you can just show you care and provide some mentorship, you’ll be outdoing 90% of the managers out there.
A big part of it is that we don’t train people to be managers; we just promote people who are good at one thing without realizing that managing is different.
Worth Reading - Deepfakes: A Problem In Search Of A Problem?
If you ask a group of legal professionals if they've seen deepfakes be an issue in court, and they all say no, is there no issue, or did they fall for the fakes?
This might be true - The Competency Cliff
What that business case did not account for is that the repetitive work was never just production. It was training. It was the mechanism through which junior lawyers developed the pattern recognition, contextual judgment, and professional instincts that made them capable of doing the higher-value work later. The efficiency gain is real. So is the competency gap it is quietly creating.
AI is pushing us back to this - 3 ways to prove you’re human online
Worth Reading - Microsoft backtracks on Copilot Chat access in M365 apps
It never made sense to me that they kept adding more features to the free version of Copilot for M365. Yes, they were also adding some advanced features in the paid version, but at some point, you are competing against yourself for the average AI user. It is definitely a shift, though. Add in the fact that this news also came out in the same week:
Microsoft to strip AI-generated recaps from Loop in surprising move
This is pulling away a feature from the paid version, which is very surprising.
This may be of interest - Live Webinar May 19: Gaslighting at Work: How to Stop the Workplace Bullying That Impacts Neurodivergent Professionals
This was an interesting conversation about how people learn differently, and training for a neurodiverse workforce, and I’m not just saying that because I work with Laura.
Worth Reading - When Asking for Help Feels Unsafe
Obviously, this is true in the world of sports, where any perceived weakness can be the difference between a first-round pick contract and no contract, but it’s also true in many of the industries all of us work in. In tech, do you want to be perceived as someone who might not be able to produce at the same level as everyone else? In law, do you want to be seen as maybe not able to hack the billable-hour requirements?
Whether either of those perceptions is true is not relevant; the risk of being seen that way exists. This risk makes asking for help less safe, which makes it more likely that someone won’t be able to do it.
Related - Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Mental Health Remains the Last Workplace Taboo
Maybe it is All About Just Showing up and Being Friendly
Maybe they’ve stumbled onto the simplest life hack there is for loneliness - become a regular somewhere. Exist in a space where people expect you to be and then be friendly while you’re there.
This is true of all of your files - How to make sure you never lose your photos again (backup, backup, backup)
It’s hard to feel sorry for the losers in this case- Meta and YouTube ordered to pay $3 million to young woman in social media addiction trial. It’s worth considering the possible ramifications - Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They’re Actually Cheering For
This was an interesting case related to cloud resources - When the Platform Disappears: Spoliation Sanctions and the Google Analytics Sunset
That’s all, folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put into sharing this with you each week.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.