StevenMiyao

Mike was 40, head of digital strategy and innovation at Bank of America, with a job that looked great on paper. He says that's the moment he realized he had become the corporate version of the person he'd spent his whole life saying he never wanted to be.

It’s a reasonable bet, and until this year it was a safe one. Then Meta cut about 8,000 jobs this May, a tenth of the company, and Groupon roughly a quarter of its workforce, both to move the money into AI, and the people cut were largely experienced, well-paid, and supposedly untouchable. Being competent but no longer engaged doesn’t protect you the way it once did.

The bonus clears, and for a few weeks, you can stop asking yourself if this is really what you want. Then the check settles into the account, time passes, and the question comes back.