SINGAPORE: An HR product manager has revealed in a viral clip that companies are merely using artificial intelligence, performance improvement plans, and return-to-office mandates as an excuse to push out employees.
“I worked in HR and compensation for years—and even I didn’t see this coming,” the woman wrote in her caption. “RTO isn’t about collaboration. PIPs aren’t about performance. And the ‘AI efficiency’ excuse? It’s the biggest corporate rebrand of the decade.”
Return-to-office is a ‘pressure tactic’
Companies often say that bringing employees back to the office is all about building a stronger company culture, improving engagement, making use of office space, and encouraging better teamwork and collaboration.
On paper, it sounds reasonable. Who would not want better communication and a more connected workplace?
But according to the product manager, that explanation is not the real story. She believes return-to-office mandates are less about collaboration and more about control.
“It’s not about collaboration,” she said. “Return-to-office makes employees easier to monitor and push out, and it’s a way to get people to quit on their own so companies avoid having to pay severance and unemployment.”
The real purpose of PIPs
Being put in a performance improvement plan is highly stressful. It makes you doubt your skills, and it makes you anxious about whether you’re going to end up in the dumpster.
But take comfort in the possibility that the company may only be using this “to protect themselves legally.”
The product manager explained that these companies have planned from the start to cut you off so they can repost the job at a much lower salary band, anywhere from 15% to 30% less.
The PIP is just a cover-up, a document that’s meant to protect them and show that they tried to retain you. But, in reality, they didn’t want you to succeed, which is why they “quietly moved those goal posts.”
AI efficiency is just an excuse
She also disputed the narrative that AI is directly replacing a large number of workers.
“It’s [just] being used as the excuse to restructure and reset compensation for the next however many years,” she said.
Howard Holton, chief operating officer at technology-focused analyst firm GigaOm shared a similar view.
He said that in meeting rooms, these “headcount decisions” are made first, and they only come up with the justification afterwards.
He also revealed that this justification changes from time to time. Before, it was “the economy,” “digital transformation,” and “restructuring for growth,” and now it’s “AI efficiency.”
“The executives who use these excuses know exactly what they’re doing,” he said. “They had a target number they wanted to hit. They found the excuse that made it palatable. The excuse changes. The pattern doesn’t.”
He added that the companies actually getting value from AI aren’t using it to reduce headcount.
They’re using it to help employees do more, solve problems they couldn’t before, and make their teams stronger instead of replacing them.
The only roles that have already been taken over by AI in some companies, according to a Forbes report, are those with routine tasks, such as data entry, scheduling, and customer service.
Layoffs
The product manager also brought up layoffs. She said, “It’s often not about financial performance but payroll optics. Cutting higher-paid employees boosts shareholder value. And leaders know it.”
Monika Jus, editor of Conscious Careers: Psychology Insights for Personal and Professional Growth and Deep Shift: Exploring Consciousness and Beyond, explored this in a 2025 article.
Jus explained that the pattern usually goes like this: even if a company has been profitable in previous years, it announces mass layoffs, counts the savings from those cuts as improved earnings, and then announces a stock buyback, which boosts shareholder value in the process.
For example, when META laid off 11,000 employees in November 2022, it reportedly gained $3.9 million in earnings per employee cut. In February 2023, META announced a S$40 billion buyback, which, according to Jus, was “an implicit signal that the headcount reduction was partly to fund that buyback.” The stock jumped 19% following the announcement, increasing shareholder value.
Jus also noted similar patterns at other companies. Microsoft reportedly earned around $9.8 million per layoff, while Amazon earned about $2.8 million per layoff.
Final thoughts
The product manager ended with a message for workers who feel uneasy at work.
“As someone who trusted my own company and ignored the trends, I’m sharing this now because it’s becoming impossible to deny. If work suddenly feels hostile, it might not be you. It might be the strategy.”
Reactions to her video
At the time of writing, her video has amassed 16.2k likes on Instagram, and 357.5k views and 21.6k likes on TikTok.
Most users agreed with her take. One TikToker wrote that the employers are doing this as “punishment for the great resignation,” adding, “They’re showing us who is in control, and they’re making people desperate to take the scraps.”
The product manager replied, “Absolutely! They did not like the power being in the employee’s hands!”
Another commented, “Using PIP to get rid of tenured employees and replace them with cheaper employees. I totally agree with this.”
A third shared, “I just had my boss and his wife aggressively come down on me and then give me a PIP with a 20-day deadline, and never have I had a complaint since being there, but I am paid well. So I wondered if this was a reason.”
A fourth simply remarked, “Corporate greed. It’s always corporate greed.”
Read also: Why pushing harder at work in your 40s may be doing more harm than good — One expert has answers.
