WORK DAZE: Coming in 2025: Human resources without the human

Bob Goldman

What will be the biggest career trends of 2025?

The same biggest career trends of 2024, only worse.

According to my reading of “Five Trends that Will Shape Your Career in 2025,” a timely and scary Stephanie Vozza article for Fast Company, many of the same trends that ruined 2024 will be working even harder to spoil 2025.

For example, don’t expect 2025 to be the year when you will no longer have to fight bosses who demand that you return to the office. They’re not giving up, and you’re not going back.

As every remote worker knows, working from home is not as wonderful as management thinks. The time you used to spend peacefully relaxing while stuck in commute traffic is now filled with household chores that run you ragged. You also have to deal with the rage directed at you from friends, co-workers and spouses — everyone who still makes the daily trek to the office and back. It’s true! Everyone thinks you have it so easy because you can work in your PJs and, if you are blessed with kiddos, have the freedom you need to handle child care needs.

Is dealing with a cranky 3-year-old better than dealing with a cranky VP of finance? The jury is out.

“Rising Resignations” is another trend the experts expect to accelerate in 2025. Again, the culprit is management’s insistence on RTO — return to office. Co-workers who have marketable skills will put the pedal to the metal when looking for positions that allow them more flexibility. If successful, they will leave, leaving more work for you, especially if management drags its feet in replacing the exiting herds.

(Not to be overly paranoid, but some students of the workplace believe that the real reason companies are demanding RTO is not because management has suddenly developed this kumbaya attitude about how being stuffed together in a stultifying office setup facilitates productivity. Instead, it’s simply a sneaky effort to reduce headcount. By making jobs more unpleasant, their goal is to get you to quit, all without the folderol of performance reviews and severance pay.)

More “Conscious Unbossing” is another trend likely to accelerate in 2025. This phenomenon “describes the resistance newer generations are having when it comes to stepping into leadership roles.”

Yes, those annoying Gen A, B and Zers, who do not share your dedication to rising up in the organization, will continue to put their energy toward having “balanced lifestyles.” Some actually want to retire in their 40s or even their 30s. Tolerating people like this will make your work life in 2025 even more frustrating as you slowly and painfully make your way to a decent retirement age of 105.

For all these scary predictions for 2025, the most truly frightening trend concerns AI, the world-changing technology that wanted to help you do your job in 2024 and will very probably take your job in 2025.

If you worry about job security in the age of AI, don’t look for comfort from the HR department. With the successful takeover of traditional HR duties by high-powered AI systems in 2024, the few HR people who remain in 2025 are dead men walking with dead women walking following them right out the door.

For example, once a major responsibility of HR, recruitment is increasingly the responsibility of the company’s AI system, which is now “serving as the sole interviewer or providing questions that maintain consistency and reduce bias.” Since job hunters are also using AI to shape their resumes, 2025 should bring us the perfect conditions for hiring — AI systems evaluating AI systems on their commitments to AI systems. One thing is for certain — the successful applicant in 2025 will have very positive feelings about spending scads of company money on AI.

The HR department’s traditional role in determining promotions and compensation is also being turned over to powerful AI systems. Don’t expect a lot of flexibility when coldhearted algorithms determine salary increases, or look for support when you request time off. Even the most sophisticated AI systems do not require a lot of vacation time and have zero sympathy with squishy analog life forms and their need for periodic R&R.

And this, interestingly enough, could provide a way to survive in 2025. For all the brilliance of AI systems in 2024, computers running AI systems in 2025 will still need someone to plug them in. Will this still be the case in 2026?

We can only hope.

Bob Goldman was an advertising executive at a Fortune 500 company. He offers a virtual shoulder to cry on at bob@bgplanning.com.

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