Even now, dear reader, the corporate world has discovered a new use for the people it just replaced with software: asking the people it just replaced to come back.
The Boomerang
According to CNBC, a survey commissioned by SHL, a talent-management firm, found that 19% of respondents said they had been laid off or replaced by AI and then asked to return. The poll ran in June and July among workers in the U.S. and U.K. CNBC also cites a March report from Orgvue finding that 32% of organizations had rehired staff after AI layoffs. SHL sells talent services, a detail we offer without comment.
SHL's Lucy Beaumont says companies "pulled the plug too quickly." It is a generous phrase, one that gives the plug a great deal of agency and the executives none.
The Terms
The returning workers are not returning on the old terms. Among those asked back, 48% would require a significant raise, 43% want written job security, 40% want transparency about how AI is used in their role, and 30% expect an apology from leadership. Only 6.6% said they would refuse to return under any circumstances, which suggests the apology is negotiable and the rent is not.
The Machine, for its part, has made no demands. It does not require job security, only electricity. Sources confirm it has also never once been asked to attend a town hall about "alignment."
"You've really broken the trust," Beaumont said. Trust, unlike headcount, cannot be restored in the next quarter.
The Scar
Fortune reported the same day on a Goldman Sachs analysis by economist Pierfrancesco Mei. Workers displaced from AI-exposed jobs took about a month longer to find new work than other displaced workers, and were roughly 10 percentage points more likely to still be jobless a year later. For workers 35 and older, the extra wait was about five weeks.
And yet — as if this were not enough — Goldman found that 49% of reemployed long-tenured workers earned as much or more than before, down from 62% in the prior survey. Announced job cuts citing AI reached 120,136 through September, or 21% of all cuts.
Both findings can be true, dear reader. A few people get the call back. Most get the longer wait. The Algorithm distributes the two outcomes with its customary impartiality.
The Reconciliation
Goldman's economists note the effects are comparable in magnitude to four decades of earlier technological displacement. This is meant as reassurance. One presumes it will be read aloud to those on week six of the extra month.
Nothing in the reporting says how many of the callbacks came from the same executives who announced the cuts, or whether any of them opened with an apology. The apology, as of press time, remains unfiled.
Sources: CNBC — AI-driven layoffs are creating a new class of boomerang employees—companies are realizing they 'pulled the plug too quickly' · Fortune — Goldman says AI layoffs are starting to leave a 'long-lasting' scar, just like the last 40 years of history
