workers

After saying goodbye to 9,000 people, an Xbox manager has a suggestion for the rest of its workers: AI as therapy

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Microsoft has been news again after announcing the Dismissal of 9,000 employees worldwide, a decision that has shaken both the company’s central departments and Xbox and their associated studies. The reason for this restructuring is not economic problems, but a Microsoft strategy to be more agile in the race for the development and implementation of AI. In this context, Matt Turnbull, executive producer of Xbox Game Studios Publishing, published a message in his LinkedIn profile aimed at those who had lost their job. In his statement, Turnbull encouraged his former partners, to use AI to how to cope with the impact emotional and mental dismissal. The message was not well received. Dismissed. Unlike the massive dismissals that occurred decades ago, the layoffs that are currently taking place in large technological ones They are not due to economic problemsbut to business strategies to flatten the structures of the companies to be more agile in the crazy technological career that the AI ​​is starring. That makes thousands of employees lose their job not because they will be replaced by an AI, but as collateral damage to their development. The news of the layoffs has coincided with Microsoft’s promise to invest 80,000 million dollars in AIwhich has generated even more debate on the priorities of the company and the impact of the Employment automation. Those affected, including Xbox Game Studios and other key departments, now face a technological scenario marked by labor cuts. An AI to cry. Amid This restructuringTurnbull published a series of recommendations for supporting their former employees and colleagues from Your LinkedIn profile: “These are really difficult times, and if you are going through a dismissal or even preparing silently for one, you are not alone and you don’t have to do it alone.” The manager was not referring to the fact that Microsoft will offer support to its employees. Invited them to rely on chatgpt to overcome the trauma of dismissal. Matt Turnbull’s original message capture “I have been experimenting with ways to use AI tools to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that entails the loss of employment,” explained the manager in his publication. Turnbull’s recommendation soon generated controversy, since many considered ironic that a high position of Microsoft, a company that is reducing workforce to adapt to the AI ​​era, suggest to the dismissed use precisely those technologies as emotional support. Microsoft more “Severance”. The reactions in social networks to the publication of the Xbox manager did not wait. The controversy intensified on platforms like x and Redditwhere Some users They compared the situation with the labor dystopia of the “Severance” series when the “separations” of the company occur, while others criticized the lack of empathy of the manager for inviting those affected to face the frustration of a dismissal using a chatbot as a therapist. Touch the image to go to the original message The comments on networks indicated that Turnbull’s proposal reflected a disconnection with the emotional reality of those who lose their jobs. “It is not a tool for the one that can replace your voice or your experience lived,” recalled Turnbull himself in his message, although for many, the suggestion of resorting to AI in a moment of vulnerability lacked the empathy that requires the situation and the They qualified as insensitive And little successful. Following the wave of criticism for the lack of empathy, Turnbull finally eliminated his LinkedIn comment. A therapist without empathy. In its publication, the Turnbull invited Microsoft’s newly fired employees to seek emotional support in AI. Although more and more people turn to AI models designed to Offer psychological supportthese technologies They cannot empathize With the nuances of human suffering and its use can have negative consequences. They have Documented cases in which the use of chatbots such as Chatgpt has led people to anguish situations or worsen its emotional state, which calls into question the suitability of these tools As emotional support In critical moments. The AI ​​can help you find a job. Beyond the debate generated, Turnbull shared a series of suggestions to use AI as a personal assistant to find a new job, proposing Prompts Specific that could help with career planning, the update of the curriculum, the writing of messages to contact former partners. Points where AI can be of great help. There is the circumstance that personnel selection processes are increasingly conditioned to the algorithmic selection of profilesso a solution to overcome that barrier is to use more AI for Optimize the curriculum and generate presentation letters. In Xataka | Some employees sued their company for cutting the salary. The supreme has responded that being unpunctual is not a job Image | Pexels (Angel Bena)

Microsoft is one of the world’s largest companies. He has had to abrive his workers because they didn’t even use Copilot

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In case it was not enough pressure for Microsoft employees, after announcing the dismissal Now he has decided to take a radical turn in his internal strategy and requires his employees to use tools for In your workflow. What was only a recommendation before, now it has become a demand in the toughest line of the “Ai Fluency” that has already been established in companies Like Duolingo, or Canva. According to published Business Insiderthis change responds to the imperative need for Microsoft to accelerate the adoption of AI among its own template, especially considering that only a few They used their github co -ilot. At the blacksmith’s house, stick knife. AI is no longer optional. Microsoft’s address has made it clear that “the use of artificial intelligence is no longer optional.” As published by the American media, Julia LiusonPresident of the Microsoft developer division, sent a forceful email to Microsoft managers: “AI is now a fundamental part of our way of working. Just like collaboration, data -based thinking and effective communication, the use of AI is no longer optional: it is essential for all roles and all levels.” This message implies that all employees, regardless of their position, must carry out literacy in AI and incorporate artificial intelligence into their workflows with the objective of Automate bureaucratic tasks or repetitive processes. Do not use it penalizes. To encourage their use, Microsoft managers received the order to incorporate the knowledge and use of AI among the factors to assess when evaluating their performance. “(AI) It should be part of their holistic reflections on the performance and impact of each individual, “Liuson instructed to those responsible for team. Although there is still no unique metric in all departments, some teams are already assessing establishing concrete ways of measuring this aspect in the next annual performance reviews. The enemy at home. This change seeks to solve what Microsoft considers that Github Copilot’s too slow adoption among its own workers. The pressure to adopt the AI ​​not only comes from within. Satya Nadella’s firm faces hard competition between models of programming assistanceas cursor or Replitwhich are winning growing in number of users, to the point of overcoming it in some segments of use. Citing a Barclays report, the American media says that “cursor would have already overcome Copilot in a key segment of the development market.” Technology currently allows its employees to use external AI tools provided they meet certain security requirements, which shows that not even in its Github Copilot bosom has the monopoly. Business Carambolas. Microsoft’s alliance with Openai is about to give a new fruit, since Sam Altman’s company is tantling the purchase of Windsurfmain cursor rival in the Nic of AI agents for programming assistance. Since Microsoft has an agreement with the Chatgpt creator, this acquisition would give indirect access to the intellectual property of Windsurfwhich would help you improve co -ilot performance. With this New movement Nadella’s masterful, Microsoft would have access to the heart of its main rival, something does not go unnoticed for Windsurf and OpenAi managers. In Xataka | Microsoft fired him after 23 years but continues to go to the office: “I feel responsible for my team and my clients” Image | Unspash (Salah Darwish, Tai Bui)

Despite this, 9,000 workers will say goodbye

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Microsoft has announced the dismissal of 9,000 workers worldwide, a figure that represents approximately 4% of its template globally. The cuts affect different departments and jobs from different regions, including key divisions such as Xbox and their European studies King and Zenimax. The pattern is repeated. Mass cuts after finishing a fiscal year are not, unfortunately, novelty in Microsoft. The company justifies these measures as “necessary organizational changes to better position the company in a dynamic market,” confirmed a Microsoft spokesman to the environment Central Windows. But the reality is that these adjustments have become a summer constant for technological. The figures speak. Microsoft closed its last quarter with income of 64.7 billion dollarsa growth of 15%, and accumulated 245,100 million for the entire fiscal year, with an annual increase of 16%. Despite these positive results and a stock market capitalization that exceeds 3.36 billion dollars, the company considers it necessary to reduce template to maintain its competitiveness. Xbox in the spotlight. The video game division has been especially beaten, with Phil Spencer, Xbox leader, Explaining Employees that cuts seek “eliminate management layers to increase agility and effectiveness.” King, head of Candy Crush, will lose approximately 200 employees (10% of its workforce), while other European studies such as Zenimax will also suffer significant reductions. The history is extensive. Microsoft already accumulates several episodes of mass layoffs in 2025: less than 1% in January by performance, More than 6,000 in May and another 300 in June. The most serious precedent dates back to 2014, when He eliminated 18,000 positions After the acquisition of Nokia. In 2023 there were 10,000 those affectedand in 2024 another 6,000, adding the same figure only two months ago. And now what? The company has never billed as much as now, but every summer the cuts arrive as if it were an unavoidable appointment. The impact of his mass layoffs in the past has touched divisions such as Surface, which does not go back. In addition, although the income generated by its Xbox division They have benefited After the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, Xbox hardware sales They go in a chopped falland many of their development studies also have been affected In recent sometimes. His commitment to AI depends almost completely on Openai, although the relationship is more temperate than beforewhile rivals as goal develop their own models. The company is in its best economic moment, but also in a moment of great changes, with the same injured. Cover image | Simon Ray In Xataka | Microsoft fired him after 23 years but continues to go to the office: “I feel responsible for my team and my clients”

Replacing workers with AI sounded spectacular. There are already companies backward

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That an AI takes away our work is A fear That is being realized. More and more companies that bet on replacing human employees with automated processes with AI. At the same time, the potential that the AI agents It seems almost unlimited. The reality is much more complex and there are already some companies that have had to give reverse in their plans. Yes, but to supervise her humans. There are many companies that have begun to draw a plan to replace their employees with AI, especially in the sector of the customer service. However, according to a survey of Gartner, 50% of companies are abandoning this path due to the challenges that the transition to a service managed only by AI is assuming. 95% of the executives surveyed claimed that they would bet on a hybrid approach combining AI and Human agents. In the words of Kathy Ross, director of the Gartner customer service: “IA offers significant potential to transform customer service, but it is not the panacea. The human touch remains irreplaceable in many interactions.” The Klarna case. Perhaps the most popular case of a company that has regretted betting on the AI ​​is that of Klarna. In February 2024, his CEO presumed that an AI was doing the work of the 700 employees who had just fired and also assured that he was receiving the same score from the clients. A year later, the quality of service offered by AI received many criticisms and had to back to hire human labor Ensure that customers can always talk to a human agent. Not so quickly. Although currently the agents of AI are not so reliable As Altman promisedit does not guarantee that they will not improve in the future. In addition, there are cases of other companies to replace humans for AI has gone well. Like the CEO of this Indian startup that He fired 90% of the template And a year later he states that it has been A success. And it is not the only one. Duolingo, for example, fired 10% of its translators to replace them with an AI. Other large companies such as UPS and Cisco They have followed similar paths. The case of IBM It is particular, since, although it has opted for AI, it has also had to hire more workers precisely to manage that AI. IA agents. With the generative AI in decelerationsince the end of last year there is another concept that has gained relevance, that of the AI agents. While chatbots can only attend one request at the same time, an AI agent is able to perform more complex tasks. For example, you could organize the holidays only to mention the dates and destiny. The promise of autonomy, the ability to handle several tasks at the same time and make decisions make the AI ​​agents A threat to many jobs. Unreliable. We can all make mistakes and in this it seems that AI agents are very human. The problem is that if an AF agent makes an error, he continues to repeat in successive tasks, making the error increasing And the final result is also wrong. We have also seen other uses of AI tools at work that have not fully went well, such as disastrous work interviews conducted with AI. A revealing experiment. A experiment carried out by researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University He suggested that they are still very green. They created a fictitious software company whose employees were AI agents. They used Google, OpenAi, Anthropic and Meta models, to which they assigned roles such as finance, administration or software engineering. The result was disastrous: they only managed to complete 24% of the tasks assigned to them. AI and labor market. The impact of AI on the labor market is undeniable. According to the last World Economic Forum Reportit is expected that by 2030 92 million jobs will be destroyed due to AI automation. But there is another face of the currency. At the same time, they will be created 170 million new positions And the AI ​​will be one of the job creation engines, something we have already seen with Salesforce’s case. Cover image | Pixabay In Xataka | The workers have stopped fear of AI as a machine to destroy jobs: software engineers do not think the same

Elon Musk asked for 80 hours per week to his workers. Tesla investors reproach him not to do 40

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Around Elon Musk the idea of incombustible worker Able to work more than 100 hours a week and even sleep In his office as TeslaTo save the bankruptcy. Proud of that image, the millionaire did not hesitate to demand the same to its employees. A group of Tesla investors has sent a surprising request to the Board of Directors of the company: that Musk dedicate at least 40 hours a week to direct the company. This application comes in a Critical moment for Teslawith the company crossing one of its worst crises, according to its own shareholders and with the figure of Musk more questioned than ever. Musk, focus. The debate on Musk’s commitment to Tesla has intensified after recent passage through politics. The signatory investors, among whom is the American Federation of Teachers, which has 7.9 million shares of Tesla, consider that its CEO has been too dispersed, and now require concrete measures to guarantee good governance and the Tesla stability. In her letter addressed to Robyn Denholm, president of the Tesla Board of Directors, the shareholders indicated that “the external activities of Mr. Musk seem to have diverted their time and attention from the active management of Tesla’s operations, as would be expected of any other executive director of a company that is quoted in the stock market.” Musk itself confessed I could barely dedicate one day To direct your companies. 40 hours a week and three -day week. The investor letter sent to the Tesla Board of Directors, requests that any New remuneration plan For Musk, include the obligation to dedicate at least 40 hours per week to the company’s management. Investors even suggest that Musk could group these hours in three days, leaving the other two to address their other business or political activities. “We just want to make sure that you can devote enough time to supervise and, in the case of executives, properly manage the company,” explained PATEL TABLE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SOC INVESTMENT GROUP (one of the signatory investors) to Fortune. A plan to replace CEO. Also, shareholders demand the elaboration of a clear succession plan for the CEO position. In this sense, investors do not propose the replacement of Musk as CEO as Yes they made their employees. Its demand is to identify “emergency” successors that can assume the leadership of Tesla in case Musk is not available, with the objective of “incorporating a new person with the right skills to execute Tesla’s business plans.” Some plans that, on the other hand, the Board of Directors must make public with a strategic schedule between 2 and 5 years. In this way, Tesla would have a succession protocol preventing the company from being “delayed” before an unforeseen event. Limitations for managers. In addition to asking for greater involvement from their CEO, investors also ask to limit the responsibilities of the members of the Tesla Board of Directors In other external companies. With this measure they intend to restrict simultaneous positions of managers outside Tesla to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure that the management is fully Focused on the company. “For many years, the amount of time that CEO Musk has dedicated to the management of Tesla has been limited by its multiple private companies and other external activities,” says the letter. Therefore, they ask that the company’s maximum manager can only hold a managerial position outside of Tesla. A BOARD FIELT TO TESLA. Investor requests do not focus only on the management of Musk, they also extend their criticisms to other members of their board of directors. They insist on the need to incorporate at least a “truly independent” vowel into the Board of Directors. This person should not have links with other council members or Elon Musk to avoid nepotism and conflicts of interest personal among the members of the Board. This request arises after the appointment of Jack Hartung, former executive of Chipotle, as a member of the Tesla Board of Directors. Investors They were worried For the professional connection that Hartung and Kimbal Musk, brother of Elon Musk, have cultivated for years. This petition seeks to eliminate servility when negotiating the salary remuneration of the Board of Directors so that the interests of the shareholders and Tesla over the personal ambitions of its members prevail. An example was the Salary Bonus Negotiation granted to Musk in 2018, by a board formed by friends, historical collaborators of Musk and even his own brother. In Xataka | A government “Extremely Hardcore”: Elon Musk is applying to the US the same recipe that has applied to all its companies Image | Unspash (Mark Chan), Flickr (Gage Skidmore)

A “Chinatown” for 2,000 Chinese workers

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Figueruelas is a small village. According to The INE It does not reach 1,300 inhabitants, throughout the town (discounted the canteen of the pools) it works A single bar And most of its inhabitants They conduct to neighbor Zaragoza to cover many of the services they need in their day to day. Now the town faces a great logistics challenge: the construction and commissioning of The new catl factory It will mobilize 2,000 Chinese operators who (logically) will need a roof. The question is: where and how to give them that accommodation? A fact: 2,200 workers. The new battery factory for electric cars in Figueruelas was announced between Employment promisesbut for now the construction and commissioning of the factory will mobilize Chinese operators. Many. Many. The Aragon newspaper concretized A few days ago that between this year and the one that Catl comes, it plans to transfer Figueruelas to 1,847 Asian professionals. Moreover, the first 274 operators will arrive before 2025. Other sources go further and talk about the mobilization of around 2,000 Operators from the Asian giant to launch the factory. Or even more. A month ago, during An interview With the Being, the mayor of the town, Luis Bertol, revealed that “more than 2,200 workers from China” will move to work in the Aragonese village, located half an hour from Zaragoza. One question: Where are they going to live? It doesn’t matter if the data of 1,847 worked Advanced by the local press or the estimate that Bertol handles. The forecasts of Chinese operators mobilized to shape the future Catl factory are considerable and leave a question: where are they going to live? Or rather, where are they going to stay? The issue is better understood if it is taken into account that in Figueruelas there are hardly any 1,270 neighbors registered. Around 2,000 operators Chinese who will disembark over the next few months to build the new factory that will take from batteries to Stellantis will far exceed the local census and force those responsible for the project to seek accommodation. A complex task. And that they cannot take. The idea is that the factory begins to produce modules already In 2027so the first contingent of workers would arrive This fall and will continue in 2026. A WARNING: “zero” offer. Bertol assures That the multinational wants the accommodation of Chinese operators to be “as close as possible to the factory”, but that raises a challenge: the municipality has a land available, but if we talk about housing offer already built things are different. In A recent talk With EFE, precisely about the challenges for his town and neighboring villas, the mayor of Figueruelas acknowledged that the current housing offer is “zero.” Zaragoza is not far away, but its real estate market is not immune to the tensions experienced by the sector in most capitals and large cities in the country. The offer It has been reduced And prices have shot. According to the idealistic portal, throughout the last year the cost of rentals has been more expensive 10% In the Aragonese capital. If we talk about the sale market, the price increase is even greater, 12.8%. Another figure: 1.5 hectares. At the end of May Herald revealed that the multinational needs at least 1.5 hectares next to the Figueruelas factory to assemble “a great self -sufficient accommodation” for the hundreds and hundreds of operating workers mobilized from China. Bertol himself He has recognized that the company have been interested in the availability of land, although, nuancethere are no decisions made and other options are handled. The newspaper Quote five locations Upon receiving displaced employees from China: Pedrola, Grisén, Barboles, Alagón and Figueruelas, the option for which his first mayor bets. “I think the most feasible is that it is in Figueruelas”, Bertol emphasizeswho ensures that the multinational wants operators to be as close as possible to the works. To facilitate it, the City Council already He would have offered him “Several land available.” Another challenge (already medium and long term) is where to accommodate or how the housing market will influence thousands of employees that will have the battery factory when it is operational. An idea: prefabricated homes. As is usually the case with all megaprojects with multinationals and millionaire investments, around the new catl factory for Stellantis reigns discretion. That has not prevented news about possible solutions to welcome workers. And one that Sounds strongly It is the creation of prefabricated houses. “The little information I have is that they are looking for soils to make some villas”, assures the mayor of Figueruelas. In his opinion, “the solution is to build Mobil Homes“For workers. Herald speaks Also of bungalós that will be expanded to the rhythm that the contingent of displaced workers does. From the project environment They guarantee that operators “will not live in barracks” and Spanish and European regulations will be respected. The UGT union He already warns which will be attentive to complying with minimums on labor legislation. For now and in regard to accommodation, the local press assures that factory investors have contacted modular construction firms and You are looking for Housing for the high positions and technicians in Zaragoza. A memory: the works of 1982. The arrival of 2,000 Chinese has generated expectation nationwide, but in Figueruelas there are those who see it with relative tranquility. After all there are precedents. Something similar happened for example to early 80swhen the landing of General Motors was accompanied by technicians from other countries. “Then American, German and even Japanese came,” Remember in The country a former director of the company. Images | Swedish Pavilion AT Shanghai Expo 2010 (Flickr) and Figueruelas City Council In Xataka | The remote roads of Teruel are filled with trucks loaded to the top of clay. The reason: Ukraine

It is the first for not allowing workers to access their algorithm

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The Generalitat of Catalonia has imposed a fine of the multinational Amazon for the lack of transparency of the company with the operation of the algorithm in charge of monitor productivity Of the more than 2,000 employees working in their logistics center of El Prat de Llobregat, located in the immediate vicinity of Barcelona airport. The economic fine itself does not have greater importance for a multinational in Amazon’s size, but it does have a symbolic value since it is The first in Spain that acts on the lack of transparency of algorithms that control labor relations in the digital economy, such and as he published exclusively Chain ser. The productivity algorithm marks the rhythm. At the end of 2024, the facilities of the Amazon Logistics Center in the Prat de Llobregat, the largest that the company has in Spain, received a “macro -inspection” of work by computer specialists at the Generalitat. The inspection occurred before the denunciation of the union delegates in terms of prevention of occupational hazards to which Amazon had denied access to the operation of the algorithm that It measures productivity of the template. This algorithm controls the daily work of each of the employees, and determines whether its productivity is adequate. What the union delegates demanded was to know what parameters used the algorithm for Determine that productivity. Raúl Hernández, Warehouse Mozo at the Prat and CGT member of the Company Committee, declared Chain ser That “they measure article by article everything you are placing and if they believe it is not enough, they demand more.” The employee ensures that, not knowing the parameters that govern the control algorithm, they cannot know how their work is being in advance until they receive the warning of a supervisor. “Many times they come and tell you: ‘You are not going to the average of the day.’ But how am I going to know the average?” The employee says. Amazon “symbolic”. In the Labor Inspection of the late 2024, several minor infractions related to the determination of the schedules and rest times of the staff were found, as well as the allocation of time to go to the bathroom, parameters that also controls the aforementioned productivity algorithm. In this sense, sources of CCOO consulted by Chain ser They estimate that the set of sanctions could be around 100,000 euros. Of that amount, 2,401 euros would correspond to the sanction for non -compliance with the right of workers’ participation. In other words, for not attending to the requests of the labor security committee to know the productivity parameters that the algorithm uses. “Even if it is an economically symbolic fine, it is essential to consolidate a new right of workers, which is to know if the algorithms have an impact on the workplace,” he said BE Dani Cruz, head of Digital Transition of CCOO of Catalonia. Amazon does not agree. Asked by Xataka, Amazon sources disagree with the sanction claiming that the regulations on risk safety and prevention are respected and announces the appeal of the sanctions imposed. “We disagree with the position of the Labor Inspection in its resolution proposal, which is not firm and, therefore we have resorted to. We will continue to collaborate to answer their questions and requests in this regard. In Amazon, our working people provide services in a modern and safe environment, under the highest standards of safety and health at work. The safety and well -being of our people employed is our top priority. The infrastructure and facilities of our logistics centers are Designed to guarantee a safe and comfortable work environment. The Rider Law and the Algorithm. One of the most critical points of the called Rider Law approved in 2021 for regulate the labor market promoted by the new digital platforms, it was to include in the statute of the workers the right of the Company Committee to be informed about the operation of algorithms of these platforms. In its article 64.4 a new section D was introduced in which it was indicated: “Be informed by the company of the parameters, rules and instructions on which the algorithms or artificial intelligence systems are based that affect the decision making that can influence the working conditions, access and maintenance of employment, including the elaboration of profiles.” According to the Labor Inspection, Amazon would not have offered due information on the functioning of this algorithm to the Occupational Risk Committee. The “Gray List”. The lack of information about the parameters that measure the productivity of the workforce throws a shadow of suspicion about the company’s labor practices. Employees denounce that this data could be being used to argue dismissals among less productive workers once they conclude high demand campaigns (Black Friday, Christmas, etc.). According to union sources consulted by Chain serthe data provided by this algorithm could place employees in “gray lists” without their knowledge. The employees of these lists could be candidates to be fired under the justification of breach of safety standards. “They put things like you have not respected safety standards. They are situations that may have happened, but that are very thorough and with that justify the dismissal,” says Raúl Hernández. According to union sources, before a judicial resource, most of these layoffs end solving as inadmissible. In Xataka | Companies have found a way to fire indefinite after labor reform: disciplinary dismissal Image | Flickr (Álvaro Ibáñez)

A company tested the four -day work week. Now your workers think it is best to work seven days

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The debate on the Reduction of the working day It is more alive than ever and many countries are reconsidering their working day model with alternatives such as four -day work week. Lumena small Cardiff SEO services consultant, tested the four -day work week obtaining outstanding results. However, his CEO, considered that the idea could still be improved, so he decided to go one step further and try a model even more flexible: Work seven days a week. From the four -day week to 32 hours. As Aced Nelmes, CEO of Lumen, counted In his LinkedIn profilethe company had changed its four -day workday for a 32 -hour. The difference can be underestimated, in that change the elimination of an important barrier is implicit: the company will not impose if its employees have to do those 32 hours In a certain number of days or at a certain schedule. It will be the employees themselves who decide when to work. According to his CEO, two years ago, Lumen implemented the four -day work week. The results exceeded all expectations: staff rotation fell to zero, productivity increased and employees felt more rested and committed. According to Nelmes, “our workers reported to be happier, have better health and be more productive.” But the model It could be improved. Seven days to meet your day. “The idea of ​​the 32 -hour week is to go further in the flexibility offered by the four days,” Nelmes explained. In the system proposed by Lumen, the only condition is that employees meet their projects and objectives, managing their time with total autonomy. Nelmes clarified in statements to The confidential that “what I require is a lot of self -discipline, capacity for concentration, self -regulation, initiative and independence.” The company seeks workers capable of directing their own time and offering the best of themselves. “I think we microstal the day -to -day life of our workers, we assume what kind of day they should have to be productive. My argument is that it is not, we do not know, and we need to delegate that decision in each individual,” said the young manager to El Confidencial. The exception: meetings and training. According to The publishedby him Financial Timesthe only exception to the total flexibility of Lumen is the time that the company dedicates to Team meetings in which the mandatory projects and formations are defined. Together, the CEO ensures that they do not exceed three hours per week. This guarantees the connection and coordination of the team without sacrificing individual autonomy. For all others each of the employees distributes their work week with total labor flexibility and No entry or exit schedules. Results and surprises. During the three months of proof of this new flexibility model, Nelmes observed that, in reality, the employees did not make major changes in their schedules. Most had routines similar to conventional ones, adapting only small details to enjoy personal activities. “People like to have routines and structure, so many … still prefer to move within a standard schedule,” explained the CEO to The confidential. The flexibility had limited itself to adapting their working hours to certain personal activities (playing sports, medical appointments, etc.) or to coincide with The schedules of their childrenand then recover that time at another time of the week. According to Nelmes, the most extreme case is that of one of its employees, who took advantage of that flexibility to adjust their rest days during the week according to the climate or their personal needs. Then, I worked on Sunday, because it was the time when I found greater concentration and less interruptions. Flexibility with clear values ​​and limits. As has counted The CEO, this model does not imply total disconnection of the company. Lumen takes great care of your team to ensure that everyone shares Commitment values and responsibility. “We would not hire someone who only wanted to work 16 hours in two days,” says Nelmes. In fact, the manager assures that they have had to leave people who did not adapt to this level of freedom and demand. The objective is to allow employees to have enough flexibility in their workday to be carried out as people and take care of their familieswhich also helps them save in nurseries, cleaning or extracurricular activities. According to Nelmes, “if you let your employees be good parents, they will also be good employees.” The company seeks to attract fathers and mothers, convinced that flexibility improves both productivity and the quality of life. An adaptable model, but not for all. Although the manager ensures that the results obtained by his staff have been positive, he acknowledges that this model is not viable or For all companies Not for all sectors. Consultants, banks, law firms or marketing companies can benefit from this approach since they allow combining the flexibility of teleworking with the organization by objectives. However, it acknowledges that it is a difficult implementation option in sectors such as the manufacturing industry, construction, the hospitality or tourismwhere physical presence and fixed schedules are inherent to the nature of work. In Xataka | Spain already has its first municipality with four -day work week. It is not in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​but in a corner of Cádiz In Xataka | Three Spanish companies tell us how it has gone after implementing a job utopia: the four -day week Image | Lumen

IBM fired 8,000 workers to replace them with AI. What I did not expect was to hire many others … for the AI

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The chickens that enter through the chickens that come out. IBM was one of the main protagonists in the Waves of mass layoffs globally Two years ago, and now it is again for the consequence of making this decision: having even more workers. The layoffs. In January 2023 IBM joined the Gray days In the technological sector. Google announced the departure of 12,000 of its employeesX (old twitter) fired 83% of its workforce in Spainand Spotify said goodbye to 600 workers. On the IBM side, I know They completely paralyzed hiring and the dismissal of 7,800 workers was formalized. IBM CEO itself explained That his company would cover artificial intelligence, affirming at least 30% of its workforce was replaceable. The consequences. IBM talked about how they could do without workers by replacing them for AI, but not about the people necessary to operate that AI. One of the executive directors of the technology, Arvind Krishna, collects to WSJ that the number of employees has increased after the wave of layoffs. “Although we have done a huge amount of work within IBM to take advantage of AI and automation in certain business workflows, our total employment has actually risen, because we have managed to obtain more investment capacity to cover other areas,” Krishna told The Wall Street Journal. The company has fired workers to replace them with artificial intelligence, but has also increased hiring in programmers and sales personnel. They have not transcended concrete numbers about how many hiring there have been and if they have really covered or not the 7,800 layoffs. The automation to command. IBM has been fully trusting more than three years Askhran artificial intelligence solution that began to take shape in 2021 and that Today they use for processes related to human resources management (payrolls, employee documentation, vacation managed). The company claims to have automated 94% of RRHH’s routine tasks, achieving productive improvements worth 3.5 billion dollars in recent years in more than 70 business areas. This significant saving in human resources, according to the company, is allowing them to invest in other areas. An AI-FIRST company. On the IBM website we have detailed The official position of the company with AI. It is worthy of a Black Mirror chapter, but perfectly summarizes the state of AI in the workplace. “As the chatbot learned and became smarter, our NPS (Net Promoter Score) began to increase. We added more functionalities, along with the ability to perform transactions. Askhr evolved to a digital assistant that allowed managers to transfer employees to another manager or initiate the quarterly promotion process. Everything was done directly in Askhr With just a few clicks. In 2024, Askhr He managed more than 11.5 million interactions; 94% of them were resolved within the platform. That means that, of all the questions asked, only 6% needed to be derived from Askhr To a specialized partner in HR. The current NPS is +74, so we have traveled a long way from that -35. There are almost 90 automation integrated into Askhrand more on their way. Thanks to this, managers can make HR transactions 75% faster than before. According to IMB, automating processes with AI has allowed you to be faster and more efficient, with a minimum need to derive HR personnel processes. One of the keys is in the evolution of the assistant: they have been using it in tests since 2017, and in 2025 it is already replacing humans. IBM is not alone. The companies replacing workers for AI was not an experiment of 2023. There are already companies that have dispensed with 90% of their customer service departments by Chatbots, ensuring that it was the right decision. Duolingo started 2025 With replacement of human teamsome already shot them through the cylinder head and They ended looking for programmers on LinkedIn. AI and its labor impact It is especially linked to process automation. Reports like ‘The Future of Jobs Report 2025’prepared by World Economic Forum, hope that by 2030 the Process automation destroy about 92 million jobs. In Xataka | “I have three years of work”: more and more IA managers believe that AI will end up removing the position

You do not have enough workers to attend them

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Greece has a huge challenge ahead if he wants his tourism sector to continue growing. And it has nothing to do with transport or promotion. Your problem is much more basic: employment. Although the sector moves thousands of millions of euros, it has A prominent weight In the national GDP and the country has started the year with A considerable increase Visitors, Greek hotels and restaurants see how the high season is approaching with squalid templates. The sector speaks of 80,000 vacanciesa great work emptiness that It has worsened over the years. The question is … How to combine the increase of tourists with the shortage of personnel? And above all, is Greece the spearhead that advances what can happen in Other countries? A growing sector. With the increasingly distant memory of COVID-19 and the pandemic break, things paint well in the Greek tourism sector. Last year he received almost 36 million of foreign visitors, 3.2 million more than in 2023. The fact marks a historical maximum that resulted in 21.7 billion euros, according to The Government. The forecasts for this year are not bad, something important if you take into account The considerable weight of tourism In the Greek economy. The National Bank estimates that it will grow above 5% with an increasingly unstacted offer. For now, the sector has started 2025 with an increase in foreign visitors and income and in Athens is expected A record of visitors in summer. THE GREAT CHALLENGE: EMPLOYMENT. The problem is that for a country to stand out on the international tourist map, it does not arrive with having beaches, deposits, good weather and a first cuisine. The sector needs something much more basic and structural: laboura template capable of attending to that growing flow of visitors. And in Greece that part of the gear has been failing. Explains it today The Guardian in An article In which he details that, just a few weeks after the high season in the region, the hospitality and food sector, key pieces of the tourism industry, have pending 80,000 positions. A huge hole of vacancies that is equivalent to a personnel deficit in the receptions of hotels and bars. The most curious thing is that the problem is not new. The Greek tourism industry has been dragging it for a long time without, so far, it has found a way to solve it. On the contrary. The Athenian newspaper Kathimerini explained a year ago That the personnel deficit in hotels and restaurants has been aggravated as postpandemic tourism recovered: in 2021 he added 57,700 vacancies, in 2022 they were already 60,000, in 2023 the 60,000 were exceeded and in 2024 there were 80,000, 53,000 corresponding to hotels and 30,000 to the hospitality industry. Hotels, the big challenge. In April Scan TV He already warned that the sector appears to a new summer campaign with the same problem and required that the deficit remains around the 80,000 jobs, a hole that is felt especially in hotels. The challenge is not only to find employees willing to cover those vacancies, but to find trained professionals, which is what entrepreneurs are missing. “What we are seeing is an unprecedented shortage of qualified and experienced workers,” alert the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Food and Tourism Workers, Poeet. But … why? That is the big question. If the Greek tourism industry grows, receives more visitors and enters more money, why does it cost so much to find staff? There are several factors at stake. One of the main ones, such as Remember from Poeetit is “the exodus of employees” that during the pandemic left the sector (very punished for confinements and restrictions) and no longer returned. To that is added the Demographic decline of Greece, which has been losing population for years until 10.4 million of inhabitants, and the emigration of Thousands of students and workers After the economic crisis of 2008. In fact, tourism is not the only one sector that has encountered difficulties in finding employees in the country. It happens to agriculture or construction. The Greek authorities insist that in recent years thousands of positions have been created in sectors such as logistics, commerce or health and are trying to capture professionals from other emigrated countries and compatriots. There are those who has seen an exit in the regulation of immigrants who illegally reach the country or in asylum applicants. The Guardian Precise that some have already received training in the Hellenic Association of Hotels to work in the country. The background problem. The hospitality will not be easy. Although demand grows and the authorities emphasize that tourism It is being disseminatedremains a sector with very specific conditions that complicate to capture labor. “Once the season is over, workers are only entitled to three months of unemployment. How do you expect to survive the rest of the year?” He wonders Giorgos Hotzoglou, from Poett, in statements to The Guardian. The truth is that with the deficit of professionals as a backdrop, Greek workers have already mobilized to protest their loss of purchasing power, motivated by low wages and high cost of life. “The situation of the workers of the hotel sector in Greece is especially difficult, with a high level of precarious work, hours of work not registered and low wages,” The association warns EFFAT. Precisely to avoid marathon days, the country has just released a hours of registration of hours, the Digital work card. Images | Terrazzo (Flickr) and Dermuecke (Flickr) In Xataka | Japan has realized that to welcome 60 million tourists, something lacks: workers in the hotels

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