You work for one of the biggest consulting firms in the world. You’ve been told that taking a voluntary separation package from the company is in your best interest. When you agree (not that you had much choice), you’re asked to sign an agreement that not only won’t you disparage the company, but you’ll use the language provided to you to let your colleagues know why you’re leaving (nothing bad about the company) and how great your time there has been. With more than 330,000 employees in this company, won’t anybody think identical farewell messages from multiple employees find this a bit suspicious? That’s what happened at PwC, our lead topic in this monthly long-form FIR episode for June 2024.

Also in this episode: Megainfluencers charge as much as $1.5 million for a single post. Could you do better with a bunch of mico and nanoinfluencers? New studies are out from Deloitte and McKinsey on the state of AI in the workplace. AI avatars and coworkers are starting to show up in some companies as the tools to create them get easier to deploy. Publishers worldwide have been hit by Facebook deleting posts that have been inaccurately identified as spam. And your favorite brand that showed such commitment to that social cause a few years ago? They don’t care about being “woke” anymore.

Dan York is focused on policy in his Tech Report, looking at age verification laws that are popping up all over the place, Canada imposing a tax on streaming services (after a less-than-optimal experience with a link tax), and a U.S. Supreme Court Decision is due about content moderation.

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, July 29.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. To obtain the credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request them in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.

Links from this episode:

• PwC asks for silence from departing staff in programme of UK job cuts
• Neville Hobson on LinkedIn: PwC Forces People Out and Then Tells Them to Fib in Their Farewell Emails
• The Long Tail of Social Media Influence
• Deloitte Generative AI Survey find Adoption is Moving Fast, but Organizational Change is Key to Accelerate Scaling
• State of Generative AI in the Enterprise 2024
• The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value
• Is It OK to Use AI Avatars in Employee Communication?
• Asana introduces ‘AI teammates’ designed to work alongside human employees
• Publishers around the world hit by Facebook labelling news as spam
• Shel’s LinkedIn post about Facebook removing FIR updates
• Your favorite brand no longer cares about being woke

Links from Dan York’s Report:

• New York Passes Legislation to Ban Addictive Social Media Algorithms for Kids
• Mississippi is the Latest State Sued by Tech Group over Age Verification on Websites
• Canada Imposes 5% Tax on Streaming Services to Fund Local News and Diverse Content
• Link Taxes Backfire: Canadian News Outlets Lose Out, Meta Unscathed
• Can You Kick Trolls out of Your Online Forum? U.S. Supreme Court to Decide

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