AI and job satisfaction are moving in opposite directions and most workplaces haven't noticed yet. You finish the day having produced more than you ever could alone. You also finish it without the feeling that you did anything. A Harvard research study called the Progress Principle found that people who feel they accomplished something each day stay longer at their jobs and report higher satisfaction. AI is delivering the output without delivering that reward.

There's a famous story about cake mix companies requiring customers to add an egg. The egg wasn't necessary. But people felt like they baked the cake when they put it in. Remove the egg and the satisfaction disappears even though the cake is identical. AI meeting notes are accurate. They don't carry the tension between Fred and Erica that you'd have caught in the room. AI writing is efficient. The writer choosing music to set the mood for a session is doing something the output can't replicate. Harvey Schachter's argument is that managing AI at the end of a full day can leave you exhausted with nothing to point to.

The calculator parallel is already settled. A generation grew up without building the mental muscle. The question of whether they were robbed of something isn't rhetorical. His answer is yes.

Topics: AI and job satisfaction, AI productivity workplace, Progress Principle Harvard, task completion psychology, AI tools management

GUEST: Harvey Schachter | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/management/article-ai-can-rob-us-of-the-pleasure-of-task-completion-and-the-joy-of/

Originally aired on 2026-02-25