It’ll Be You Before Them

I’ve written before about grief and AI, about how rapid technological change is shaking people’s sense of identity and purpose. But lately, I’ve been noticing another prevalent pattern, one suggesting that a different, trickier kind of grief is emerging in the workplace.

Before going further, I want to clarify something: I’m not calling bosses bad people, I’m not saying managers are villains, and I’m not suggesting secret meetings where leadership plots to undermine employees. This is not a Marvel origin story.

I’m talking about something far more ordinary and far more human: self-preservation under threat.

I hear versions of the same story from clients, friends, and people who until recently felt solid at work. Suddenly they are being disciplined for things that feel trivial, dubious, and — in some cases — borderline whack-a-doo. Performance reviews come back surprisingly negative even though nothing objective has changed. Metrics feel vague. Standards seem to shift after the fact.

And people keep asking the same question: What am I missing? What did I do wrong? When did I become a “bad employee”?

Here is a different question worth asking:

What if this is not about you at all?

What if your boss is scared?…