We’re living in the time of AI anxiety. A recent Pew survey found that only 10% of Americans are more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI in daily life, while five times that number — 50% — are more concerned than excited, up from 38% in 2022. And there’s good reason to be anxious about AI — it’s changing every aspect of our lives — first and foremost, there are the daily reports of AI-related job cuts.
Though this technology is very new, the human qualities we need to navigate how it’s changing our lives are as old as we are. And there are lessons to be found in other times of turbulence. Psychologist Salvatore Maddi and his colleagues at the University of Chicago studied employees of Illinois Bell Telephone in the 1970s and 1980s, a time when the phone industry was being deregulated. The company was downsized 50% in one year in what was considered the largest upheaval in corporate history. Here’s how the researchers described what happened: “Two-thirds of our sample broke down in various ways. Some had heart attacks or suffered depressive and anxiety disorders. Others abused alcohol and drugs, were separated and divorced, or acted out violently. In contrast, a third of our employee sample was resilient. These employees survived and thrived despite the stressful changes. If these individuals stayed, they rose to the top of the heap. If they left, they either started companies of their own or took strategically important employment in other companies.”
