348. The Enshitification of Work
Key Takeaways
- Enshitification happens when companies over-optimize for profit and sacrifice humanity in the process.
- What happened to Amazon, Facebook, and airlines is now happening inside workplaces—speed, scale, and efficiency are replacing meaning, connection, and culture.
- As leaders prioritize productivity, they unintentionally drain creativity, purpose, and human connection out of the work experience.
- Symptoms include always-on communication, fake urgency, tool overload, and automation taking over the wrong parts of work.
- Without intervention, workplaces risk becoming soulless, disconnected, and disengaged.
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Actionable Insights
- Create connection: Bring back meaningful human moments—real breaks, real conversations, real community.
- Respect boundaries: Use “send later,” stop the 24/7 pings, and protect people’s off-hours.
- Slow down: Normalize thinking time and reward quality over frantic busyness.
- Celebrate humanity: Acknowledge collaboration, curiosity, and non-transactional wins.
- Measure what matters: Prioritize trust, connection, and emotional harmony—not just output.
Leadership Challenge
- Identify one area where your team is slipping into enshitification—always-on behavior, too many tools, “everything is urgent,” lack of connection, or automation overload.
- Choose one practice this week that rehumanizes work for your team.