In this issue:

The Fed just handed us a weather report for the job market — and the forecast is violent.
AI’s not “coming.” It’s already here. The question now is: who’s building lifeboats, and who’s still arguing about the rain?

Scroll down for my answer.

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The HR Blotter

Your Boss Didn’t Write That Review—AI Did - Managers are quietly outsourcing their judgment to machines. A new report shows a surge in leaders using AI to write or rewrite employee performance reviews, often without telling anyone. It’s efficient, sure—but it drains the humanity out of HR, turning feedback into algorithmic noise. If trust is the currency of workplace culture, automation is printing counterfeit.

The Job Hunt Is Rigged—and the Algorithm Knows It - Job seekers are realizing the hunt has changed. AI filters, vanishing postings, and recruiter burnout have rewritten the rules of getting hired. It’s no longer about who you know—it’s about how well you can game the machine. The résumé isn’t dead, but it’s bleeding out on the algorithm’s altar.

Nine to Nine, Six Days a Week—Zero Life Left - China’s “996” culture—working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—isn’t dying; it’s mutating. Burned-out workers are quitting quietly, forming shadow economies and side hustles to survive the grind. It’s a warning shot to employers everywhere: push people past their limits, and they’ll find new ways to work around you.

How Remote Workers Are Hacking the Clock - “Microshifting” is the new buzzword for slicing your day into bursts of focus between chores, childcare, and caffeine refills. Remote workers swear it’s saving their sanity—and their output. But beneath the self-help gloss, it’s really about survival: when work bleeds into everything, workers adapt by fracturing time itself.

AI Is Killing Mentorship—And No One’s Training the Replacements - Stripe’s AI chief is hiring more new grads than ever—but she’s losing sleep over who will teach them. With automation eating away at entry-level work, mentorship is becoming an endangered species. When junior roles vanish, so does the next generation of leadership—and the future of learning at work itself.

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The Jim Stroud Podcast

Not subscribed to The Jim Stroud Podcast? Then you’ve been flying blind. Here’s a taste of what they’ve been hearing—while you’ve been missing it.

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The Perfect Storm is Here

The storm is here, the data’s in, and the excuses have run out.
We’ve spent years arguing whether AI will create or kill jobs—meanwhile, it’s already doing both.

The Federal Reserve’s September 2025 report gave us a rare gift: clarity.
Businesses are retraining instead of firing—for now—but they expect “more significant layoffs and scaled-back hiring” once automation fully kicks in. Translation: we’ve got maybe 18 to 24 months before the acceleration phase hits. After that, the map changes.

This isn’t another “future of work” think piece. It’s a survival plan. A playbook for workers, leaders, and policymakers staring down a perfect storm of AI disruption, economic drift, and boardroom spin.

For Workers: Move Before the Flood

Forget the “become an AI expert” hype. The PwC study showing a 56% wage premium for AI skills isn’t about mastering code—it’s about learning how to work with the machine.

If you’re in accounting, use AI to crunch the data faster.
If you’re in marketing, let it draft, you edit.
If you’re a project manager, let AI schedule the chaos while you lead the humans.
You’re not trying to beat AI—you’re training it to serve your expertise.

Start your own 30-Day AI Challenge: one tool, 30 minutes a day, for one month. Document what works. That’s your fluency exam.

Next, conduct a skills audit—brutally honest.
Ask yourself three questions:

1. Which of my tasks could AI already replace?

2. Which become stronger with AI?

3. Which stay human no matter what?

Double down on #2 and #3.

And build your AI-adjacent network. The winners of every industrial revolution weren’t the smartest—they were the most connected. Surround yourself with people who’ve already figured out how to make AI pay rent.

For Companies: Stop Faking the Future

The MIT data says 95% of AI pilots fail to show real value. That’s not innovation—that’s theater.

Stop using AI as a press-release costume or a layoff excuse.
Do an audit:

• Which AI projects actually deliver value?

• Which are just window dressing?

• Which “AI decisions” are really old-fashioned cost cuts in disguise?

The Brookings analysis is clear: companies that invest in AI and people grow jobs, not lose them. The rest are just automating mediocrity.

Follow the Fed’s two-phase timeline:

Phase 1 (Now–18 months): Retrain and experiment. Build internal AI muscles while the market’s still patient.
Phase 2 (After 18 months): Scale what works. Prepare for the productivity shock. The acceleration phase will punish laggards.

If you treat AI as a cost-cutter, you’ll get smaller.
If you treat it as a collaborator, you’ll get stronger.

For HR: The Front Line

You’re the translators between fear and opportunity. The Federal Reserve data is your ammo—proof that smart companies are retraining, not replacing.

Build your workforce architecture in three tiers:

Tier 1: AI Literacy — every employee learns what AI can and can’t do.
Tier 2: AI Integration — role-specific mastery. Use the tools, measure the results.
Tier 3: AI Leadership — people who can design human-AI systems and lead the cultural shift.

And stop pretending “productivity” looks the same. Update performance metrics.
Measure collaboration with AI, not just time spent at a keyboard.

Your message should be brutally clear: AI isn’t coming for your job—unless you refuse to learn it.

For Policymakers: Stop Rubbernecking the Future

The Fed has shown you the weather report. Now act like it.
Expand Fed-style business surveys to track what AI is actually doing to jobs, not what lobbyists say it’s doing.

Build public dashboards showing where automation is hitting hardest.
Fund retraining programs before the layoffs come.
Modernize benefits for a workforce that’s becoming portable—careers that live across employers, not inside them.

And don’t just regulate the tech—incentivize the right kind of AI.
Tax breaks for companies that use automation to create jobs, not erase them.
Public contracts for AI that enhances human capability, not replaces it.

The Window

Right now, the data says businesses are retraining, not firing. That’s your window.
In 18 months, that window starts to close.

Workers need new skills.
Companies need real AI strategies.
HR needs courage.
Policymakers need speed.

The Fed gave us the facts. History gave us the blueprint. The rest is on us.

The storm isn’t a metaphor anymore—it’s the market forecast.
Move now, or get washed away.

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One more thing before I go…

I usually drop my interviews on the weekend, but this week I’m shaking the table. Three interviews. Back to back. Before we slide back into the regular flow of those 5-minute hitters.

Tomorrow’s episode? Yeah—it’s one you’ll feel.

That’s it for now. Until next time, hit reply and let me know how I’m doing. Or slide into my DMs as the kids say. All good.

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