Bad News for Tech Workers

The Barista departing was the first sign

Last week, Marc Benioff apologized for saying President Trump should send the National Guard to San Francisco. His suggestion surprised many, given his past progressive stances. This post isn’t about troops, MAGA, or progressives. It’s about scarcity and why tech leaders feel liberated.

There is nothing more valuable to tech firms than software developers, and tech leaders like Benioff have been terrified of losing these highly valued employees. Benefits like elaborate lunches and massages were designed to attract them. These perks are disappearing because tech leaders are no longer terrified of losing their staff. They have AI

Without software developers, companies like Salesforce could not grow or make money. Why did someone as smart as Benioff feel empowered to shit where he eats? Because he is no longer fearful of losing his employees.

This year, we are seeing tech leaders promote ideologies that seem out of character, such as political donations and endorsements, and the elimination of initiatives such as DEI and sustainability. Another symptom of disappearing fear is RTO initiatives.

It is fear, not that tech companies are more enlightened to human treatment. We can see this clearly at Amazon because it has two extreme tiers of employees. Amazon’s “green badge” workers—delivery drivers, customer service reps, warehouse staff—have been subjected to what can only be described as abusive conditions. Monitored down to keystrokes and pee breaks, they are subject to high injury rates and made to stand in body-search lines without compensation. This is labor for those without scarcity.

Meanwhile, throughout the company’s history, Amazon's techies have enjoyed the industry standard of high wages and lavish perks. The more mohawks and piercings, the better. It was great while it lasted.

As of early 2025, an estimated 41% of code is AI-generated or significantly AI-assisted. Tools like GitHub Copilot can generate up to 46% of code in enabled files, and developers report saving 30-60% of time on everyday tasks. AI excels at boilerplate, predictable tasks like generating HTTP handlers, configuration files, and unit tests. Advanced AI agents outperform 98% of human programmers in specific coding contests.

The coder's role is transitioning to tedious code reviews of generated code. “Code reviewer” is less fulfilling and, crucially, easier to fill.

Amazon surprised me when it announced its RTO program last year. This is a cloud-native company with vast resources that can’t solve remote work? Of course, it could. Last month, Microsoft notified its employees that RTO requirements will begin in Q1.

These companies know RTO mandates encourage employees to leave. Cisco confirms that 65% of respondents in recent research considered a career change due to rising RTO policies, and 57% said flexibility significantly influenced their job decisions. Even more telling, 63% would take a pay cut for more remote opportunities. We all know that remote and hybrid work programs are effective — we saw it with our own eyes. We also know Microsoft will lose employees with its RTO program.

Microsoft has already cut 15,000 jobs this year, reportedly to invest $80 billion into AI infrastructure (painful irony). The tech industry has been experiencing mass layoffs for the past three years—260,000 in 2023, 150,000 in 2024, and tens of thousands this year.

Some quickly accuse Microsoft of duplicity as it enables remote work with Teams and other products, but note that RTO programs are prevalent in tech, including at other online meetings leaders, such as Google and Zoom.

We aren’t quite yet where we can be overtly abusive toward tech employees; we still need Code Reviewers (for now). However, the transition is underway, and employers are becoming less tolerant of their developers’ desires. Tech leadership now feels empowered to drop their masks and champion causes they value.

The era of the scarce, pampered software developer is ending, and the era of AI-powered development is beginning. It will get much worse for the humans as these layoffs pour gasoline on the scarcity bonfire.

Up Next

This week, Dave Michels is in Vienna for the NiCE Analyst Conference. Then, it’s off to Miami, where he will present UCaaS Mobility at the Crexendo Service Provider User Group. David Danto is at NAB New York and tilting at windmills again by calling out collaboration platforms to fix interoperable calling. And we’re all recovering from the latest Single Point Of Failure outage at AWS (prem systems didn’t blink).

The September Insider Report is available to paid subscribers, and the October report is work in process. Also, Michels dropped a Deep Dive on the 2025 CCaaS Magic Quadrant. The MQ has great info, but much is between the lines. Check out David’s chat with the Netspeek team about Lena GA.

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