S&P Global downgraded Oracle's long-term issuer credit rating to BBB-, which places the tech giant just one notch above non-investment-grade (junk) status: Seems apt, to mention that in the context of my latest: open.substack.com/pub/atwillem...

Been busy drowning in corporate dystopia, so seems an appropriate time for this... open.substack.com/pub/atwillem...

Is it a prerequisite that the head of FIFA looks like a Bond villain, or just convenient, given everything else?

Meta laying off thousands more employees, because the war in the Middle East has really pushed up the price of yachts.

If you ever wondered what the deal was with unlimited PTO...

“Meta to lay off 10% of workforce (around 8,000 people) in AI push”. Or: “Meta to lay off 10% of workforce in push for greater profits.” They’re not doing it to benefit anyone or anything other than their bottom line. It's also possible that this AI investment will be an utter waste of money.

I like using AI for certain tasks, but it feels like rolling the dice any time I use it. Sometimes it’s great, other times it’s like asking my cat for financial advice. And yet companies are throwing hundreds of billions at it. Absolutely terrifying, and that’s not even to mention environmental cost

Oracle is laying off up to 30,000 people. 30,000 people, many with families, mortgages, kids. The math on the human disruption doesn't end at 30,000. I also keep wondering if there's a breaking point somewhere. And what it looks like when we reach it.

OpenAI just shut down Sora. 6 months. $5 billion/year to run. $2.1 million in revenue. A Disney deal that collapsed on the same day. Pointless harm to the environment. Supposedly smart people in a very expensive building saw all the forecasts, and greenlit it anyway.

I think the fascinating thing here, is that the Dems are often left to pick up the pieces, but because they're in the pockets of the corporations too, decide not to make any meaningful changes (for example tackling wealth inequality) because the people who fund them wouldn't like that at all.

If anyone here has been laid off or knows someone who has, they may have been offered use of one of these services, just to add insult to injury: atwillemployee.substack.com/p/the-outpla...

It's not new news, but it's something that so perfectly sums up where we are that The McDonald's CEO called his own burger a "product," and was clearly scared to take a bit (took a bite the size of a thumbnail) because he knows it's absolute poison.

Atlassian the latest to lay off a load off 1,000+ humans and blame it on AI. Their software is absolutely terrible so maybe they want to use more AI since it's always so positive about everything.

As the saying goes... Crime pays... substack.com/home/post/p-...

Calling it a "K-shaped economy" makes massive inequality sound like a neutral economic phenomenon rather than a policy choice. It's like calling a house fire "thermally divergent home heating patterns."

Nextdoor published a "Transparency Report." The link returns a 404 error. I can't think of a more perfect metaphor for corporate transparency.

A terrible story for those that lost their jobs, but truely a story about the insanity of late stage capitalism and charismatic CEOs. atwillemployee.substack.com/p/the-wework...

Some US AI startups are now proudly adopting "996" culture (9am-9pm, 6 days/week) - a work schedule so brutal that even China's government condemned it. American founders saw a labor model that killed workers and thought "perfect, that's how we'll win the AI race." Good stuff.

Got rejected for a job Thursday. Today: rejected again. Same company, same job. Most companies ghost you. This one rejected me twice to make sure I got the message. Waiting for email #3: "Circling back - still not hired".

U.S. employers announced 108,435 layoffs for the month, up 118% from the same period a year ago and 205% from December 2025. The total marked the highest for any January since 2009 (when we were in the middle of the financial crisis). this time? Greed? AI? Offshoring? Probably all of the above.

As we approach the Super Bowl, and a surge in gambling addiction, some might find this interesting. open.substack.com/pub/atwillem...

And just a reminder: Since the pandemic, Pepsi have increased prices by 15%. Twice. And embraced shrinkflation to make sure that you get less for the increased cost. Pulling back slightly because they got too greedy, and pretending they're listening to customers is prime corporate gasslighting.

PepsiCo Foods US CEO Rachel Ferdinando said that she’s “spent the past year listening closely to consumers, and they’ve told us they’re feeling the strain” and that “lowering the suggested retail price reflects our commitment to help reduce the pressure where we can Translation: We got too greedy

Profit first. There's always the food banks for those laid off.

I was today years old when I learned that the Melania documentary is a real thing, and not a spoof trailer for a documentary that nobody would ever want to watch.

Starbucks scraps $250,000 cap on boss's use of company jet... If your CEO needs unlimited private jet access and $1.1M in security because of 'credible threats,' maybe - just maybe - you should ask why people are that angry instead of just building a bigger moat.

Roblox Chose Profit Over Protecting Children open.substack.com/pub/atwillem...

UPS shares rallied to their highest levels in nearly a year. Was it because of the better than expected Q4 numbers, or because they're laying off another 30,000 workers. Got to keep those shareholders happy.

Corporate leaders when they let their mask slip...

🔌 🧵 Ah, Data centers... 1/4 Your electric bill is going up because AI companies need massive data centers. But here's the scam: you're paying for the infrastructure they're using.

I miss the time when reviews and review scores were actually helpful.

I read that "After a year marked by AI-driven layoffs, influential leaders and top executives are now warning that we can expect to see a huge ramp up in anxiety around the technology in 2026." -This is only partly true. Sometimes it's AI, but often it's offshoring or just greed behind the layoffs.

For those of us who have had to suffer from 'customer service' atwillemployee.substack.com/p/late-stage...

In the 1980s, there were over 70 domestic airlines operating in the US. Now, it's 12, and the big four (United, Delta, American and Southwest) hold around 80% of the market. Consolidation killed competition. Now they compete on who can treat you worst while charging the most.

There’s something almost performatively callous about an automated job rejection email hitting inboxes at 9 PM on a Saturday - like the system and company is so indifferent to us as humans that it can’t even be bothered to queue the email for Monday morning.

I have a Yahoo account for less important stuff. They regularly show me the below. Translation: "Let us scan your emails so we can sell more targeted ads that make us more money." When I click "Reject all," I get an error message. It's not a bug. They just don't like taking no for an answer.

Hundreds of Workday applications. AI rejection emails for jobs I'm overqualified for. Months of effort. And the reward? Wages that are the same as 5 years ago - which means 18% less after inflation. I'm not job hunting. I'm desperately searching for a pay cut.

The Demorcats are as much the party of the rich as the Republicans. They have sane social values, but they still take the same $$$ from big tech, banks, and pharma.

Over half of Congress members are millionaires. Turns out it's hard to regulate the rich when the people writing the rules ARE the rich.

When companies lay people off and cite AI (see more Amazon layoff news today). It's often just an excuse. As a reminder, ChatGPT thought my political analysis below was "a thoughtful metaphor about democracy and discourse"

Militarized police with faces hidden seize people off streets, assault them, or even murder them. Half the country is horrified. Half the country shrugs or cheers. Private prisons profit either way.

Salesforce COO: "Do we need to hire everybody in San Francisco when we can get really incredible labor in India?" (Translation: Why pay $150K when we can pay $35K?) The offshoring of skilled jobs is accelerating. Blaming it on AI is - for the moment - a distraction tactic.

Severance pay isn't generosity. It's buying your silence. Sign this, get a few weeks pay, never say anything bad about us. Forever. They're not compensating you. They're insuring themselves against the truth

Oswald Mosley's grandson runs Palantir UK. For those unfamiliar: Mosley was Britain's most prominent fascist leader in the 1930s. Palantir is a surveillance tech company named after the all-seeing orbs from Lord of the Rings. Sometimes reality doesn't need satire.

Companies like Mercor & Turing post 1000s of "expert" positions with AI interviews. You upload your resume, answer questions for ~20 minutes, never hear back. You can't tell if you failed the interview or if the interview WAS the job - harvesting your expertise to train the AI that replaces you.

1/3 Nextdoor is the bed bugs of social media. You never invited it into your house, but somehow it's there. You try to get rid of it. You follow every instruction. It keeps coming back.

When you murder someone in front of multiple witnesses and it's all captured on camera, isn't the murderer usually arrested? Asking for a concerned nation.

Seen on Reddit today. The manufacturing jobs went decades ago, the customer service jobs in the last ~10+ years, and now all the other jobs. What I don't get, is once all the jobs are gone, nobody will be able to buy the increasingly crap services and products that the companies are selling.

🚚 DoorDash tip theft 🧵 1/8 In 2025 Doordash agreed to pay $17 million to settle a lawsuit for stealing tips from delivery workers between 2017-2019. Here's the scam: if a driver was guaranteed $10 and you tipped $5, DoorDash effectively kept your $5 tip and the driver still (only) got $10 total.