The weight of unspoken expectations

Lately, it feels like the walls are closing in.

The first quarter of 2026 has been a relentless grind at work for all of us, with crushing deadlines, high but uncertain budget expectations, and uncertainties with job cuts. This is my attempt to capture what it feels like to be a white-collar worker at the dawn of the AI singularity, through fragments of conversation with friends, colleagues, and family.

The rising tide

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Wife: “I feel like I can’t keep up with this any more. My team is doing in 2 days what it used to take them 2 weeks, but it seems like that’s the new expectation. My organization is restructuring to become AI-Native, what does that even mean?”

Me: “Wow, but at least your company is moving really fast. You’re learning a lot I guess”

Wife: “Seems like the pace is going up really fast the past 2 months with Claude Code and the Claws. But I do like that I can dictate slides now and the AI agent will build it for me with the right analysis”

Me: “That’s really cool! But what do we do next ah…”

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Waves hitting close

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P (A team member): “Morale is really low. We sold this subsidiary and 5 of our colleagues will not have jobs soon. But we don’t know when the deal will close and all of them are in stasis”

Me: “I know, and it feels bad, but it’s probably the best thing for the business. Their legacy tech has been stagnant since our acquisition and all our contracts are ending – we can’t really sell this any more.”

P: “I know, but it’s like – these are our friends and their future is unknown. But all everyone asks about is revenue and no one is asking about them.”

Me: “Yea you’re right. I guess I am guilty of this too and I should reach out …”

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The anticipation of drowning

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G (A colleague): “What do you think comes next, Bridgewalker? You’ve been in your role for a while”

Me: “I’m not sure, but I think in 5-10 years I get replaced by an AI. Look, I’m a salesman and I sell to Department Heads. But in 5-10 years when the Department Head is an AI himself, how do I keep up? I can’t keep up 24/7 or write a response instantaneously or speak whatever new language they come up with.”

G: “But won’t Department Heads stay human for a while? They need someone to hang responsibility on after all?”

Me: “Maybe you have a point, but I think we are getting automated from the bottom up. BDRs are definitely getting automated -“

— J (Another colleague, joins in at the lunch table) —

J: “Have you heard about the pagan stuff they found in Greenland? That’s why Trump is obsessed with it!”

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The north star

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J (Colleague from before): “I don’t know, how do they expect me to meet my ten million dollars sales quota? That’s impossible as it is, how is it set?”

Me: “You know, all our budget and quota rolls up globally and eventually becomes the number we report to the Street. You have shares, I have shares. We hit our quotas together as a group and number goes up”

J: “But it just doesn’t make sense, logically. My account can’t generate that much this year.”

Me: “Maybe you can ask for a lower quota, but it just means somebody else from our region has a higher quota. It’s a zero sum game man, we need to hit our budget”

J: “You missed your sales budget last year, right? What happened?”

Me: “Yea I did, and this year is going to be even harder. There is pressure to improve our margins with AI efficiencies, but our customers are not paying for higher prices or demanding less of us. And those efficiencies certainly don’t seem to be materializing”

J: “Why are you even here man? You could be doing so many other things.”

— Thoughtful Pause —

Me: “I guess, I … really like my job. It’s really fun – meeting new people and old friends, getting them to sign on the dotted line.”

J: “The thrill of the chase, eh?”

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Daylight?

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My 3 Year Old Son: “爸爸， 我长大后，你可以买两台电脑给我吗?”

Me: “为什么要两台电脑给我啊？”

My 3 Year Old Son: “我要一个家里的电脑，一个工作的电脑！”

— Laughter —

Me: “爸爸会买一个电脑给你，可是工作的电脑不必买的，公司会买给你的！”

My 3 Year Old Son: “为什么公司会买给我电脑，什么是公司？“

My Wife, Stepping in: “你长大后，可能没有公司这件事了，自己做自己的东西”

Me: “你长大的世界，是我们想象不到的.“

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Clerks and priests and bureaucrats have existed for thousands of years, but my class – the laptop class – is genuinely new at this scale, a white collar professional involved in coordination, strategy and persuasion.

My parents had no laptops for work. When I interned, I used a desktop. My kid will go through even more accelerating changes in his life.

But life? It will go on, I guess, through the storm to daylight.

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