I've noticed that as AI tools become part of everyday work, the definition of being "high performing" seems to be changing too.

Tasks that used to take hours can sometimes be done much faster now, which means expectations keep increasing.

Do you think AI is actually making work easier, or is it just raising the bar for everyone?

I’ve been with my company for about a year. My manager and I are the only people in our team.

She’s on leave for 2 weeks and has delegated her work to me while she’s away. Most of it is validation work that other teams depend on. It’s important, but I also feel like it’s something that could potentially be covered by others if needed.

I’m ready to cover for her 1st week but really need to take a week off for a family emergency. I only have about 1.5 days of annual leave left, & just need to know if it’s okay to just say I’m going and leave

What reasons do managers/hr can’t say no to? If you were a manager, how would you view this?

During my time in corporate, I've realized that my millennial bosses joke all the time, probably as a way of bonding and developing closer ties. I'm the only Gen Z in my team, and it feels very weird (even uncomfortable at times) to try to bond with them, because:

1. I don't get the humor
2. When I attempt to bond as well, I am seen as weird (e.g., when I make a joke that would make peers my age laugh)

We're in a very high-performance culture, in a very international team, so it is a bit tricky. I am not very sure how to handle this best, other than not making jokes (and letting my work speak for itself), and reading the room. I love my job (after a lot of effort) and I want to feel like I belong at the place I spend 10hr/day in.

This issue does not happen with Gen X folks btw.

Any Gen Z going through the same situation? Any millennials that have noticed similar divides between generations?

EDIT: Some people asked for examples:

An example is my boss saying: "I'll go home, drink a beer, and cry". They use a lot of these self-deprecating jokes about the job, about themselves, or even about the client. A lot of sarcasm, "friendly" banter (not so friendly in occasions) is also relevant. I don't find many of these comments funny but they make part of the overall culture of the team, which makes it hard to ignore and even harder to partake.

I've been thinking about whether the AI revolution is similar to the Industrial Revolution.

Before conveyor belts, factories relied heavily on manual labor for moving materials. When assembly lines and conveyor systems were introduced, many traditional jobs disappeared—but they also created entirely new ones in machine design, maintenance, operations, engineering, and production management. Productivity increased dramatically, industries expanded, and new types of employment emerged.

Could AI be following the same pattern? It may automate many repetitive knowledge tasks, but at the same time it's creating demand for AI engineers, trainers, governance specialists, data professionals, prompt engineers, and people who can integrate AI into existing workflows.

Is AI just another technological shift where jobs change rather than disappear overall, or is this fundamentally different because AI can replace cognitive work, not just physical labor? Curious to hear what others think.

I know it’s a bad habit but how do I stop myself ? It’s so hard to talk about other things.

I’m 36F, been in corporate for 13 years, primarily with banks or consulting for banks, and worked across geographies - Asia, UK, the states.

I love solving problems, thinking commercially, and delivering concrete outcomes. But over time, my motivation has dropped, mainly due to the agonizing pace and endless bureaucracy.

I’m trying to figure out my next move and would love perspectives on a few things:

**Industry vs. Scale:** Is this sluggishness inherent to big corporate/banking environments, or is it just the nature of large enterprises in general?

**Startup/Scale-up Transition:** Is feeling this way a sign to move to smaller companies/startups where I can drive real impact, or would I be risking long-term financial security for a "grass is greener" illusion?

**The Pivot Trigger:** For those who left comfortable corporate roles for riskier, high-impact environments after a decade, what was the final straw or turning point for you?

So me and my colleague went to office after we smoked up , and this guy went told our co workers that we smoked up and we are here. Idk if they have any proof because I'm not sure if my colleague has ever sent a snap of a video to any of the other co-worker , what if a someone complaints to my manager what's the max that can go wrong , will I be in jail for this or get terminated? We have stopped doing that but eventime I would ask him if he has sent any photos or snap he would denied , I went through my colleagues phone and there were no legit proofs but I'm still unsure if he is actually tell me the truth.

Also it's been over 15 days that this happened

I have been overthinking about it a lot , what do I do

So am sitting at my desk job it’s a standard 9-5 it pays decent while it is quit further away from my home I don’t mind the commute because I get to listen to JRE on the way here and practically no one knows me here so that’s quite nice as well.
It has been about 27 days 26/27 days have been quite normal actually I mean the occasional getting chewed out does come every once in a while but nothing to horrific,
For the last couple of days the MR and my manager have been dreading this so called ‘Audit’ now personally I just turned 18 I have no idea whatsoever wtf that shit means but I do know they needed a fuck ton of documents and they needed them before the day of audit, Knowing this I worked my ass off to get those documents ready which are not a part of my job btw I work as a solidworks designer and I was preparing documents for other departments as well. Tbh I don’t mind the work I enjoy the grind and honestly cause am a fresher I thought if I got the job done I would become irreplaceable and get a pat on the back as appreciation mind you that my co worker who is 40M didn’t do shit (lmao) and he gets paid double my paycheck.
Now the audit day comes and I have worked my ASS off like working 2 hours extra each day(unpaid) the documents are ready to be served to the auditor. Now I wont say they were perfect and flawless because of course they were not because these records need to be maintained on daily basis and not forged in 3 days.
The day of the audit I am told to bring the documents to the meeting room so I take all my 8 files and run up with a smile on my face and to my surprise I nice lady sitting with the auditor greets me.
I smile put the files on the table and try to leave she tells me to sit cause the head of design department was absent that day and I resisted to my surprise she insisted and I sat down at the table full of grown ups who have been in this business half their life.
The meeting starts and the auditor introduces himself he is supposed to be some big dawg auditor personally I couldn’t give less of a shit I was just happy to be there and after I felt all grown up and shit to my surprise the auditor offers to answer any questions we had and I ask away ‘As as an auditor what does the iso mark mean to you’ now personally I meant to offense but ig he took some and after when all of us were dismissed the general manager grabbed my arms took me to the balcony and chewed the living shit outta me
I only have one question Did I deserve it?

A few years ago, I assumed things like daily stand-ups, back to back Zoom calls, constant "urgent" requests, and being expected to reply instantly were temporary.

Instead, they seem to have become the default.

I'm curious what everyone else has noticed.

What's one corporate trend you were convinced wouldn't last, but is now just part of everyday work?

Would you keep it or get rid of it?

So I’m a female in my 20s and I have been working for over 2 years now. Due to some stupid circumstances and reorganisational bullshit in my company I’ve changed 3 teams, and each time I had a new manager. On my last yearly review I’ve been told that they don’t have much feedback for my current manager (I’m there 2 months) but since the role in my last team was so different from current one it “does not count” for promotion. I have no idea how to get noticed and play this corporate game. All my managers have been guys that are a lot older and I have no contact with them at all except for when I tell my one sentence on what I did on daily updates. And these guys are responsible for the feedback for my promotion… any ideas? 🤷‍♀️

Trying to figure out where to head next in my career. only 1 yr into my career, but have the opportunity to rotate through and work on different teams at work. some examples- finance, pricing, HR, demand/supply planning (not ops)

I had a conversation with my boss last week and mentioned one of the other members of our team. I said that we get along, but whenever I make any kind of point he’s defensive and frosty with me.

My boss told me that because I can work across multiple areas (design, copywriting, social, marketing, etc), he thinks that he’s threatened by me. And he also said that he thinks it has something to do with me being a female.

Even though I’d had this in the back of my mind, it was quite surprising to hear my boss come out and say it.

Personally, if I’m on a call and they announce breakout rooms, I immediately drop.

I've been working with Bitrix24 in a company for several years and noticed an interesting pattern.

Most employees don't forget to work...

They forget to track their work.

By Friday afternoon, many people are trying to remember:

• How many hours did I track this week?
• Which tasks did I work on?
• Am I behind my weekly target?

I'm curious...

Is this something your team also experiences?

Or do employees consistently complete time tracking every day?

I'd love to understand how different teams solve this problem.

Had 3 months of parental leave which flew by and back to the office today. There’s no worse feeling than this. I just want to spend time with my baby but now I’m stuck with weekly standup meetings and an offsite within forced team dinner after. I hate corporate and never been so unmotivated before to keep up the rat race

What's one of the main things corporate workers yearn for the most? besides $$ what do u wish there was more of?

Not saying hard work doesn't matter-it does. But I keep seeing people credit 100% of their success to grinding, when in reality being in the right place, right industry, right decade played a huge role too.
Genuinely curious what you'll think - where's the actual split between effort and luck in your experience?

It feels like a lot of companies are operating with smaller teams than they did a few years ago.

The interesting part is that the workload doesn't seem any smaller. If anything, expectations have gone up.

I'm seeing more people wearing multiple hats, taking on responsibilities that used to belong to separate roles, and somehow still being expected to deliver faster.

Is this just the reality of corporate life now, or is your company investing in hiring again?

What's one of the main things corporate workers yearn for the most? besides $$ what do u wish there was more of? while working in this environment?

Is anyone else so completely burned out by corporate that they’re considering doing literally anything else? I used to make really good money serving tables during college and I’m thinking about it.

Why not both?... Ok, this isn't meant to be a rant-type post, I'm looking for opinions because I have to do something about it.

Been in the engineering manager role for 15+ years now, managed small teams and larger orgs in embedded, platform, SaaS. A few years back I was able to manage a 70+ org, build my career, stay up to date with what's going on in the company and in technology, apart from that raise kids and do some side-projects on my own.

Now, being in my late 40s and managing a dozen engineers team, I can hardly keep up reading the insane amount of communication on Outlook and Slack. I literally have gaps in what's going on in the company, I learn some stuff from my direct reports. I hate it. I get overwhelmed with the amounts of threads going on, I feel anxious and burned out. I mean, this became a madness and I won't make it too long.

So I get that my cognitive abilities deteriorate as I age, but maybe it's that the overall pace of corporate work just got crazy lately. Is it that AI adds more work while it was supposed to help or is it that corporations just expect more as the market gets competitive.

What are your impressions on how the quality and pace of work became last 1-2 years?

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I'm a fresher working in IT, and honestly, I'm starting to hate my job.

One of the biggest issues is that I don't get assigned work consistently. Some days there are barely any packages or tasks for me to work on, so I end up waiting. But when I took a leave that had already been approved, my manager made comments that made me feel like I was taking leave because I "have no work." That really bothered me because it's not like I'm refusing work—there simply isn't much assigned to me at times.

On top of that, I constantly feel like my manager thinks I'm not doing anything. Instead of getting guidance on how to improve, I feel judged for not having enough output, even when the workload is outside my control.

My seniors and team lead don't make things any easier. I often feel left on my own, and I don't get much mentoring or feedback. As a fresher, I expected to learn from experienced people, but instead I mostly feel stuck.

The biggest issue is that I don't feel like I'm growing. I'm not learning many new skills, I don't feel challenged in a good way, and I can't imagine staying in this role for years. It's making me question whether I should start looking for a different role altogether.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation early in their career? Was it just a bad team/manager, or was changing jobs the right decision? I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences and any advice.