So I'll premiss this by saying that I work in a big corporate structure.
We frequently get long “mandatory” forms, surveys and questionnaires to fill out. My guess is that this generates enough deadweight data to feed a bloated bureaucratic middle management. Shuffling papers to make it seem like they are filling vital roles, you know, typical nepotistic bullshit job at big business. Company aura is reminiscent of the governments from snow-crash or 1984, but with a sprinkling of fascism and MLM-positivity
So obviously there has been a lot of critique at the company for their shady, outdated or sometimes downright stupid practices regarding its handling of employees. We were told a while back that our critique was very valuable input to the company and that upper management were working hard on a vague data management solution to process and analyze such input. Couple of months later management (with many shoulder-slaps, cheering and pride) present us with “our new colleague” (drumroll please…) an AI! (much wow. such tech. very forefront!)
As expected this turns out to be a really shit chat-bot (that they probably spent an insane amount of money on) whos only purpose is to channel almost the exact same surveys and questionnaires that we had before. Only now they come in an even more intrusive and restrictive form, yay. Seriously, this is not hyperbole, at face value I have no doubt that I could write something on par and I am not a programmer. All this “AI” does is give some variation of “that's good” or “that's bad” in response to the grading box you ticked on the five point scale survey. If it is a “negative” response it then asks you to elaborate before moving on to the next question.
As if by chance, this bot also seems to replace many of the routine roles that our HR department had before (A welcome empathetic, albeit deaf, ear). So anyway, I suspect HR will be downsizing in the near future.
Well I got one of these infamous surveys today, ironically it is regarding how well the company lives up to it's (token) values. Oooh buddy-buddy boy, this will be fun! I had to remember to pace myself. This isn't a brief, it's a marathon. They specifically asked for honest feedback. Well I can do that, I can be honest, I've got buckets of honesty, I can keep going for days. Half way thru I was started to build up some steam and momentum, really getting into the swing of things, being so honest I was almost starting to work up a sweat with all the research, referencing and skimming; corporate greed, corruption, short sightedness, virtue signalling, meritocracy/nepotism, the peter principle etc etc
Then the question hit me that just stopped me dead in my tracks:
Do you feel redacted company name values and respects its employees?
Like… what… what do you even say to that? Then the fact that when I answer no and the robot I'm talking to says:
Ah. That is a shame.
Could you please tell me more. Why do you think that is?
I just found the whole situation so profoundly disturbing, almost sinister. I felt I had to share it with someone who might understand me.
I'm still on my work computer posting this and I know that they can monitor it. If I get fired for posting this.. Good riddance! Bring me my severance, for my cup runneth over with spite.
TLDR: Corporates implements a new toy, a chat-bot that is very likely to replace some of HR. Today it asked me if I think the company cares about its employees. Oddly hauntingly poetic, literally taking the human out or HR, shame it is likely lost on them. The cognitive dissonance/token goodwill is palpable.