When and why did it become dehumanizing? I thought maybe it was only people like me, people who tended toward -oholisms, (workaholism, alcoholism,) who worked after hours for nothing but the glory and the bragging rights. But now lots of folks are literally calling out their bad employers and walking off the job.

In his 2017 book, Noam Cohen, former NY Times Tech Columnist writes the Know it Alls The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Wrecking Ball – and he literally called us out back then. After my twitter conversation with Noam, it’s when i changed my title (at least on linkedin) to say Human Experience Research Consultant, instead of UX or User Experience. His accusation? That only the tech industry and the drug dealers of the world call their customers “users.” He was not wrong.

Now there is a #trend called TheGreatResignation, and everyone is blaming The COVID pandemic for the restructuring of our values, our goals, our “essentials.” I guess it takes a once a century virus to remind us all of what is truly important, huh?