My work is requiring all developers to “adopt AI” and “not get left behind.” You’re probably looking at the post date and yeah, I agree it’s hard to believe mandates like this are still coming.
I’ll admit it, I generally don’t like generative AI. But even with my gripes, I’m unwilling to say it has no legitimate uses. I use tools like Gemini and Claude from time to time, when it’s appropriate. But ultimately it’s a tool, and it makes 0 sense to measure performance by how much of a tool an individual uses. It’s really no different than using lines of code as a metric.
And how many times do we have to learn this lesson? They say “don’t get left behind” while the headlines have made it pretty clear this approach leads to ballooning AI budgets and no material productivity gains. The fact that someone 9 levels above me in the org tree doesn’t know this leads me to believe his position is redundant. I know, I’m stating the obvious here. But apparently it needs to be said.
The messaging is “we’re tracking how much you’re using it.” I got it, loud and clear. I will just blindly use Claude, whether it makes sense to do so or not. You’re the boss. And when forcing use of a tool in unfitting scenarios leads to a drop in productivity, you can answer for that. I’m sure Gemini will come up with a good excuse for you.
This call for your best malicious compliance.
Last week I received an email that basically said “as per our new corporate policy, here are the meeting notes as composed by copilot, please check them thoroughly”.
Yesterday we had an excellent time going over the minutes, and we only spent an hour and twenty minutes doing so, out of our two hour meeting. Suggestions someone take notes has been denied, and the project lead suggested those of us who bill by the hour make it very clear what we spend our time on.
The results have been forwarded to the fucking moron who made this mandatory. We can only hope that eventually they’ll learn. Hopefully for them, before shitty note taking gets them in legal trouble.