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Calling employees 'lower-value human capital' reveals a lot about a company's internal culture, regardless of the PR walkback. Even if AI can automate certain t
by etgpao 6mo ago
Calling employees 'lower-value human capital' reveals a lot about a company's internal culture, regardless of the PR walkback. Even if AI can automate certain tasks, language like this completely destroys team morale and trust. Good leaders should view automation as a tool to empower their team, not just a weapon to cut costs.
- kakaz 6mo ago[dead]
- NDlurker 6mo agoThat bank needs a mass exodus of human capital, either from the top or bottom. Reminds me of a much smaller scale event at my job recently. A manager who was not liked lost all their staff from their small department and is now stuck with all the work until those positions are filled.
- mbesto 6mo agoYes and no. The company is a bank - it's job is to take money and make money with that. I'm not surprised executive management is publicly saying they want to make investments in assets that will help their clients and they themselves make more money.
- happytoexplain 6mo agoThat's not what the parent commented on.
- mbesto 6mo ago"Even if AI can automate certain tasks, language like this completely destroys team morale and trust. " That's what the parent commented on and that was my response.
- rambojohnson 6mo agoSaying ‘banks exist to make money’ in response to criticism of dehumanizing language is like responding to criticism of factory pollution with ‘factories make products.’ Yes. That’s the premise...
- asdff 6mo agoWhere does it stop? Slavery would be fine if only it were legal? I mean that is the logical conclusion of a lot of business efficiency thinking. Business efficiency in a lot of ways is inhuman and against the spirit of "the collective tribe," which was originally about mutual wellbeing, not the ever more efficient extraction of resources to the benefit of the chosen few, although it was perverted that way at some point by those with the relevant mutations predisposing them to sociopathy.
- mysteria 6mo agoConsidering the unethical practices done in the name of money I wouldn't be surprised that some companies would make use of slaves if it was legal to do so.
- JohnFen 6mo agoIn the US, slavery is still legal and allowable (federally -- some states don't allow it) as long as the slaves are inmates. Many companies use that labor for profit.
- fullshark 6mo agoThe CEO has a fiduciary duty to act in the best financial interests of the company and its investors. So if slavery were legal and the company weren’t using slaves the CEO would be in violation of that responsibility and would be thrown out by the board. It’s best just to view these organizations and the people who run them as immoral and sociopathic money printing machines. Expecting morality is just going to disappoint you.
- happytoexplain 6mo ago>It’s best just to view these organizations and the people who run them as immoral and sociopathic money printing machines. People say this a lot, but that is exactly what we are doing. We criticize their behavior and words. We are disgusted by them. We want things to change. We write about and speak about it. We vote (hopelessly). That is exactly how normal humans behave in regard to those they view as "immoral and sociopathic", as you say. "That's how the system works" is a fine thing to point out, but it's not some kind of evidence that people shouldn't react they way they do - that they should just accept it forever. We are already doing what you are suggesting.
- sieabahlpark 6mo ago[dead]
- Henchman21 6mo agoWhy is it that the C-suites, etc., have so much fucking zeal for hurting normal people? Why is it that these folks are champing at the bit for layoffs? Why do they refer to people as "human resources" or almost unimaginably worse "lower-value human capital"? And why, why sir, do you enjoy the taste of boot so much?
- slater 6mo agoBecause they live in a different world.
- kyboren 6mo agoI believe "dark triad" personality traits are significantly over-represented among CEOs vs. the general population. IMO it's likely that these traits are positively selected by shareholder capitalism and traditional corporate structures.
- mbesto 6mo agoI think what he said is deplorable (hence "yes and no"). However I'm speaking specifically to the premise of what the parent said around "it destroys team morale". What I'm saying is that your team's morale may not necessarily be hurt if you are a team member at a bank full of investment bankers, capital financiers, etc. if the promise to them is that many of them can make more money with AI.
- erulabs 6mo agoBecause their job, definitionally, is to increase profit. If you increase efficiency, you've done your job well. The people who hire and fire CEOs care primarily about this metric. There's no need for insults. Have you considered that "the boot" in this case is the structure of market capitalism itself and that this structure has benefited humanity immeasurably? It could be argued heartless bankers have done more to reduce human suffering than any other group of people to have ever lived. If bootlicking means "maybe its not so bad that humanity allocates resources rationally instead of based on some arbitrary sense of fairness" than show me the boot and I'll lick. At least this boot generates excess grain and beef. All that said, of course it was highly stupid to say this in a place that would be heard be people outside the capital allocation system and whose feelings would be hurt by the unfuzzy truth that banks exist to make money.
- etgpao 6mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- bdangubic 6mo ago"lower-value human capital" sounds like a compliment to me, would expect a lot worse from an average CEO
- ryandvm 6mo agoEspecially when it comes to CEOs. I have worked at companies where the CEOs literally offered nothing but the skill of being friends with other CEOs.
- SoftTalker 6mo agoCEOs are there for the board to throw under the bus when necessary.
- dijksterhuis 6mo ago“skills not required” but they will throw their weight around as if they have them.
- DerArzt 6mo agoAnd get a huge severance package that can set the average person for life.
- red-iron-pine 6mo ago"its a big club and you're not in it"
- elzbardico 6mo agoOh man. It is a bank, Most finance people think exactly like that. They just pretend most of the time they don't and we also pretend that we believe them most of the time. Maybe it is about time we stop with all those pretend pleasantries and face the reality: when mega finance CEOs talk about our glorious UBI feature, they are not planning an idilic post-work world that looks like a Jehova's witness book illustration where we all spend our days writing poetry, painting and making music, they are planning something more like Soylent Green.
- gedy 6mo ago> they are planning something more like Soylent Green Or even just Children of Men.
- cyanydeez 6mo agoI don't think it's just internal culture. It's the epstein culture. We're watching the rise of the 'permanent underclass' and debating about what color of underclass everyone wants to be.
- catigula 6mo agoCompanies don't have a duty to their employees. They should, but they don't. Use and abuse is lawful and expected.
- za3faran 6mo agoThey're saying the quiet part out loud.
- raxxorraxor 6mo agoI would be wary as a customer too because there is little doubt he sees them the same way. Although perhaps their style of customer even appreciates this. Still, a responsible CEO would resign after such a blunder because he has become a liability for business.