By
Partha Roy
Africa-Press – Lesotho. From industries and continents around the world, thousands of employees wake up to the same horrendous news: another round of cuts. The cycle has become excruciatingly well-known. Large companies report robust quarterly profits, then sooner or later cut jobs in the name of productivity or preparation. But this time, the transition has a new appearance. Artificial intelligence is not merely a product for efficiency. It is a seismic phenomenon remaking the very nature of work.
While others mark this moment as a leap forward for innovation, others feel a more disquieting shape emerging. Beyond the economic data and investors’ demands, an underlying human cost is emerging. We see an early glimpse of a new kind of alienation—one familiar to Karl Marx, but in an entirely different context. And with it, the social state that Emile Durkheim used to caution us about—anomie—is increasingly apparent in our institutions, workplaces, and lives.
The Layoff Era and What’s Beneath It
What is so confusing about this layoff wave is that many of the companies being laid off are not distressed. They are thriving. But with AI software now capable of doing a variety of jobs—from coding to writing to customer service—these companies are opting to save money by replacing people with machines.
For the workers, the message is simple: you’re no longer needed, not due to failure or incompetence, but because a machine is able to replace you with greater efficiency and at a lower cost. That’s more than an economic punch. It is an attack on the very notion of human identity and social membership.
For generations, work has not only been the focus of our livelihood but also of our identity. We define ourselves by our occupations. We count our lives in careers. We derive meaning and dignity from the work of our hands. When that template is ripped away suddenly—not through a natural slowing but through a calculated choice to automate—it leaves individuals with more than job loss. It leaves them with an emptiness.
Alienation in the Age of Algorithms
Karl Marx’s theory of alienation explained the alienation of workers from the commodities they produce, the work they do, and finally, their own full human potential. Under the factory systems of the 19th century, this was the price of industrial capitalism.
Today, we’re seeing a new version of this alienation—one tied not to physical labor but to cognitive and creative work. Workers are not just alienated from the fruits of their labor. They are being alienated from labor itself. They are being told, sometimes overnight, that their skills and contributions are no longer needed because a non-human system can now replicate them.
But this alienation goes deeper. It is not merely what people are doing. It is about how they view themselves. A computer programmer whose work can now be written by AI in a matter of seconds. A designer whose portfolio is matched by tools that generate limitless variations in a few minutes. A teacher or therapist observing AI software replicate their approach. These employees are not merely losing occupations. They are losing functions in society and identities that they developed over years.
Anomie and Social Norm Breakdown
Emile Durkheim’s theory of anomie described the collapse of social values and norms during times of drastic change. During these times, people feel out of place in society and do not know what to do or where they belong. The social markers of success and purpose start to break down.
That is the quiet crisis that we are experiencing. Employees are instructed that hard work and upskilling are the solution to stability, yet find themselves displaced anyway. Loyalty, experience, and craftsmanship no longer promise pertinence. The rules have been altered, but nobody has redrafted the social contract. In the ensuing vacuum, individuals lose not only employment but also their sense of direction.
This increase in economic unease and existential doubt is already manifesting in mental health indicators, worker disaffection, and increasing skepticism about institutions. These are not independent consequences. They are systemic results of a change taking place more quickly than our social systems can handle.
A Caution for the Change: Human-Centered Integration
So how do we proceed without exacerbating the crisis?
The distinction is to think of AI not as a replacement for human workers, but as a collaborator. It is a distinction more than a matter of words. It is a strategic move in the way we are imagining the future of work. Rather than employing AI as a reason to fire people, we must approach this moment as a passage—one that involves care, forethought, and a deep commitment to human dignity.
Initially, businesses will need to concentrate on job redesign instead of eliminating it. AI will be able to do technical or repetitive aspects of the job so that human workers can move into critical thinking, creative, emotionally intelligent, and ethical judgment-based roles. If AI is able to prepare a report, the human being can interpret and present its implications. If it creates a design concept, human input still molds it into something purposeful.
Second, companies need to invest in reskilling, not simply provide severance. Rather than paying others to go away, invest in keeping them around. Training schemes enable workers to build new skills like rapid engineering, AI system monitoring, or communications skills. These fresh skills don’t only save jobs. They future-proof the organization.
Third, there has to be a conscious effort to decelerate the layoff curve. Abrupt, broad job reductions generate fear and resentment. Phased transitions—combined with good communication—enable workers to adjust and reestablish their role in the organization. They enable firms to hold onto institutional knowledge that is so readily lost during the haste of mass layoffs.
Fourth, the benefits of AI-powered productivity need to be shared. If profits increase due to automation, employees should also gain—through increased wages, reduced workweeks, or improved benefits. If executives and stockholders reap all the benefits while employees are let go, the economic model is not only unfair but also unsustainable.
Lastly, organizations must use human impact assessments for AI adoption. As businesses are conducting environmental or financial risk assessments, businesses ought to do the same regarding the impact of automation on employment, welfare, and society. Are individuals being replaced? Are alternatives presented? What support structures exist for those transitioning? All of these questions need to become part of routine practice in any technology roll-out.
The Future Is Still Ours to Shape
The actual threat is not AI. It is the abuse of AI in pursuit of a limited concept of efficiency that does not consider the human toll. Large-scale layoffs might bring immediate economic savings, but the long-term consequences—alienation, disillusionment, and social instability—are much more expensive.
Marx and Durkheim cautioned us in their own ways against the dangers of a society that loses sight of the human aspect of work. We would be wise to heed them. Because the issue we are confronting today is not simply one of technology. It is one of the sorts of societies we desire to be. One that regards people as expendable when there are new machines, or one that changes with understanding, prudence, and respect for human capacity.
The future of work is not only a technical challenge. It is a moral one. And we still have time to get it right.
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