Silent Resignation

Many engineers recognize how their values and principles get corrupted by AI, but they feel compelled to give into the pressure, play ball, and stay silent.

They no longer feel the sense of accomplishment when completing a software development task, since that generated code is no longer "their" code. No more problem solving, no more puzzle rush, no more creative solutions, no more clean code, no more "king of the world" breakthroughs.

Sigh.

Work becomes boring factory work. Nine to five software management. Creativity dries up. Motivation runs out. Self-esteem drops. No more going the extra mile. It is a resignation while staying in the workplace - silently.

This is no longer my profession.

The Costs

People can develop serious health issues when being deprived of purpose in their work. Sick days are rising.

Productivity and quality drops. There is a reason why "work by rule" is the most feared form of labor dispute.

Preemptive risk mitigation gets ignored. Nobody raises issues. The engineering spirit is gone. Nobody wants to discuss alternatives. The system gets jammed.

The domino-effect of everybody doing just the bare minimum, being sarcastic in the coffee corner, and silently letting things rot can quickly dismantle a once thriving organization.

You used to have people with skills. If you make no use of these skills, you are just as good as anybody with an unskilled workforce.

Open Dissent

If you lead an organization that wants to utilize AI and runs into open dissent, you might despise the critics. Actually, these critics are your friends. You should listen carefully:

• Address any contested issues before they become damages.
• Empower your employees to be in control of their workplace.
• Let your employees chose their tools. If you cannot trust engineers to chose their tools wisely and responsibly, you have a personnel issue and not a tool issue.
• Make sure that employees are proud of their work (or at least do not apologize for it).

Critics might be annoying, but they care. Be thankful.

Open dissent can lead to successful improvements. Silent resignation does not even have a chance.

The Fallacy

The big fallacy is to underestimate the injury of silent resignation.

Because it is silent, one might think: "Well, nobody stopped working, nobody left the company, nobody went on strike. We're fine." - only to later see the shop in flames.

I hope that by recognizing this fallacy, management will be attentive to early signs of silent resignation, welcome critics, and trust their employees.