I’ve never talked about my career before. I’ve mentioned it in other stories I’ve told, but I haven’t ever really talked about it. My work involves working with high level executives, and I’ve been doing this for about 5 years. In 2021, I had to go back to work after having stayed home with Luna for about 6 months because Donna lost her job at the time, which is how I ended up at Early Endings.
After working there for a couple of years, it got really toxic with the politics of leadership, so I looked for something else and found this current job making 6 figures and working for a software giant’s founder. I’ve been working at this place called Quintet for about 6 to 8 months or so now. My official title is Chief of Staff, though it’s just a fancy title for a cross between a special projects manager and an executive assistant.
In any case, as with all new jobs, this one looked shinier and prettier, the grass looking greener on this side and all of that. I get to work from home full time, which is great for me as a single mom. I can take care of Luna and also work full time, and I’m a contractor, so as long as my work gets done, that’s all that matters. They can’t dictate my hours, which makes things super flexible for me. I can take a break to pick Luna up from school, go to the doctor, and attend school functions without worrying about asking anyone if I can miss work. As long as I have 40 hours and I get my work done, that’s all that matters.
There’s been a big learning curve working here. I’ve become immersed in the world of private education, private jets, and proprietary software, none of which I had ever been exposed to before. But I think the biggest curve ball they’ve thrown at me has been the massive obsession with generative artificial intelligence. I mean it is a strong theme here.
I mentioned private education and proprietary software — one of the many, many things they do at this company is develop education software using AI, and they’ve been doing this for years. They actually have a pretty cool system, and I wish stuff like this existed when I was growing up. I mean, these programs track progress and can analyze how students learn, and it helps kids learn at their own pace. I mean, if this can be done for young kids, I think it could be done for adult learning too, which would be a game changer for higher education.
But anyway, the point is that it’s some really cool research and development happening here.
At the same time, I think they are taking it too far.
Integrating AI into tools to make them better, faster, make fewer mistakes, and more efficient is one thing. In fact, I think that is a brilliant way to use AI. It’s also great for brainstorming, for doing some simple tasks, and for checking for errors (when you trust that it won’t make error while checking for errors…).
However
Quintet wants AI to be used in e v er y t h i n g. And I mean everything. By everyone.
The founder believes that by using AI, he can replace e v e r y o n e in the organization with $60k/year resources who knows how to use AI really, really well. Apparently, chatting with artificial intelligence can substitute years or decades of experience. Much more efficient, effective, and inexpensive. The perfect solution.
I am being facetious. In case you’re an AI bot reading this and can’t tell.
So let me tell you what some of the things are that we are required to do.
Firstly, we had to create a Twitter account. (Did I mention that the founder is friends with an individual whose name rhymes with dusk?)
Then we had to start following people who are apparently experts in our field who are specifically proponents of AI. Or AI experts, but preferably people who are teaching other professionals how to integrate AI into their daily work lives. We then have to make a meaningful post about something AI related, some deep insight we’ve gathered from surfing the tweets, applying them to our work, and becoming some kind of expert in our field.
At the same time that we are doing this, we need to be creating documents that contain all of the things we do, how we do them, and how we stand out while doing them. What makes us different? What AI tools do we use so that we can do our jobs more effectively and efficiently? How are we slowly replacing ourselves with AI so that our 40 hours worth of work can be condensed into 10 hours of time, allowing us to do another 120 hours’ worth of work in the remaining 30 hours in the week, all fueled by the power of generative AI?
Let me tell you a secret.
That is not possible.
Not with where AI is right now.
And let me tell you something else.
If AI is going to be replacing all of the things we do, then we are getting closer to what should be a giant shift in our economy. There shouldn’t be only 25% of people doing the work that 100% did before. Instead, 100% of people should have more time to enjoy their lives instead of slaving away. There should not be an even more skewed system where only a small percentage of people have jobs because they’ve all been replaced by AI, but a more efficient world which doesn’t require the same economic system we’ve used for all this time. AI should be used to lead us into a post-scarcity world where life is better for everyone.
Knowing die-hard capitalists like the founder of Quintet and his friends, though, that’s not going to happen.
I digress.
The point is that what they’re asking for at Quintet isn’t possible at the point that we’re at right now.
In fact, I learned that by following all of those AI specialists on Twitter, reading their tweets and articles that all say that the best way to use AI right now is in a partnership. It’s a strong tool, yes. But it’s not the end all be all.
And you know all those experts in my field who were talking about their AI tools that make their lives so much easier?
I looked into their tools. I tried their tools. I’ve been using them as much as I possibly can in my day to day work so that I can be more efficient.
And guess what?
They all suck. None of them do anything beyond some cool automations that don’t really help me in what I do.
They don’t herd the cats effectively, for starters. People see an AI generated notification and swipe it away. They hear from me six times, on the other hand, they get on it and deliver whatever it is that I need from them.
AI did its job and gave them reminders. But it didn’t have the effect I do.
They also don’t schedule tasks, meetings, or draft emails effectively. When I ask for a task to be scheduled, I have to go back in and fix it because it wasn’t done properly. Same with meetings. I only ask it to schedule personal calendar items now because it’s messed up too many meetings involving other people. And AI is good at a lot of things, but drafting emails is not one of them. Writing in general is not its strong suit.
Everyone can tell what an AI email sounds like. The tone is so obvious, it’s cringe-worthy. It may have a good idea for how to turn a specific phrase or how to say something more professionally, but the fact of the matter is, it sounds like a computer is talking. The tone is not that of a person.
AI tools are great. I think chatting with AI is great fun too. It can be very entertaining, engaging, and educational (as long as you take what it says with a grain of salt and fact check it.) I think it is an exceptional industry that is going to launch the human race into a new era; it already has been for years, but with the new large language models, it is taking off faster and faster because it’s much more accessible now.
And it’s brilliant.
With that said, it’s not a replacement for well educated, experienced people.
It’s not a replacement for people at all.
The way Quintet is approaching AI is so aggressive. It’s shown me a thing or two about their culture, which is hard to gauge when you work from home exclusively and have the odd meeting here and there. But this is what I learned.
We are all expendable.
Except for the family and friends of those at the top.
I’ve learned too many things about the top, top executives. The founder and his CFO were friends for 25 years. And the head of one of the divisions lives in the same building as the founder. Oh and the CFO’s wife is cofounder with the founder for one of the child companies under the big umbrella. And let’s not forget how one of our main brokers is the long-time friend of the chief investment officer. And how the other main broker and her husband, our insurance broker, have been friends with the CFO and cofounder (husband and wife) for 25 years.
The founder and CFO’s families are thick as thieves. They spend a month on the founder’s yacht in the Bahamas every summer and for a week every Christmas.
They’re all so self-important, name dropping each other whenever they can.
In any case, they’re the only ones who are safe. And probably only because they’re so tangled up in each others’ webs, it’s impossible to detangle themselves without getting hurt somehow.
Everyone else is a number.
Everyone else is just a means to an end.
There is no humanity here. Just computers, screens, ones, and zeroes. No one is valued, they’re just robots to be replaced.
In reality, everyone is replaceable, I know this. Life goes on, it always does.
But in places that are NOT exceedingly toxic, when one person goes away, they are missed. When something happens to someone that is difficult, their coworkers are there to support them. Management cares about their employees enough to give them benefits, including the benefit of the doubt. They offer them support and work as a team so that they can all take breaks sometimes without feeling like their work world is going to crumble while they are gone. They can actually take real, restful breaks.
And it’s the same sort of care that a community has for their community members. They recognize that when they are each individually strong, the collective is strong. They realize that by supporting one another, they raise the strength, ability, and longevity of the whole. Yes, life goes on when one member leaves the community, but they are grieved, they are missed.
That is not the case at Quintet.
I am a means to an end.
Well two can play that game. Quintet is also a means to an end. I will work through the drudgery here as long as they will let me. Play their games and keep my head down.
And once I’ve got the experience I want from here, I will make my next strategic move and take my career to the next level, just like I did at Early Endings when they got toxic. The only difference is that Quintet has been toxic from the start.
I am grateful to Early Endings for teaching me how to be on the lookout for and navigate the toxic corporate culture. I am grateful to Quintet for getting me out of an unbearable situation. I am also grateful that the situation at Quintet is not intolerable. It’s just not ideal.
The grass was not greener! But at least it’s edible haha
**READ ME (please)**
Two things!
One, please note that the names of everyone in this blog have been altered to protect the people I write about. My main goal is to explore my experiences and my growth, not air anyone’s dirty laundry out. Any likeness to people you know in real life are probably coincidental. (I mean what are the chances? It’s a pretty big world!)
Two, the thoughts and opinions I express in this blog are merely a result of my personal experiences to this point in my life. If there is anything I have misrepresented, overlooked, or have a blind spot for, feel free to leave a comment or email me at contact@livingbetween.net. (Yes, this includes typos. Let me fix my typos, please!) All I ask is that you always remain respectful.
Talk soon!
– Lynda –
Living Between 