He answered immediately. In detail. With absolute confidence.
She even felt a little silly for doubting him.
Then she opened the source.
He was very convincing. Especially where he was wrong.
“You’ll manage,” her manager said.
Alice looked at the project list.
Before the call, there had been two of them. Now the plan involved Alice, AI and an encouraging upward trend.
As far as Alice knew, you couldn’t ask an encouraging upward trend to cover for you on Friday.
“What’s the calculation based on?”
Her manager opened a spreadsheet.
The team had delivered significantly more work that month. Documents were ready sooner. Turnaround times were down. Clients were happy.
All true.
Alice had worked for that speed. She had learnt to give AI the right context, break tasks down and check the results. She had stopped spending hours on things she could now do in twenty minutes.
She liked it.
Especially the first forty minutes she got back.
Then someone booked a meeting in them.
More and more tasks were being fitted into the same working day.
One project. Another. An urgent question about a third. Back to the first, where the brief had changed in the meantime.
AI switched between tasks quickly.
Alice sometimes stared at an open document, trying to remember whose expectations she was currently supposed to meet.
Same hours. More work delivered. By evening, she wanted even the kettle to refrain from asking follow-up questions.
In the report, it looked wonderful.
The report counted completed tasks. Nobody asked how many times Alice had to piece her concentration back together during the day.
She wasn’t counting either.
She was busy becoming more efficient.
Two days before the call, she had been asked to reduce her fee by 40%.
Because AI was helping her now.
Alice read the message again.
The extra output had already been accepted. Her new speed was already built into the plans. Now they wanted to revisit her fee, given how much easier the work had become.
When tasks started taking less time, she was given more of them. When money came up, only the first half was remembered.
She hadn’t sent her reply yet.
She was looking for an opening that wasn’t “Shall we finish the calculation first?”
During the call, it turned out that the calculation was already complete.
At this level of productivity, keeping two people no longer made sense. Her colleague’s projects would move to Alice. AI would help with the workload. They would arrange a handover.
“You can see how much you’re getting done now.”
She could.
She could also see how many more messages were coming in. And how many small decisions had to happen before there was a tidy document ready to send.
But her manager spoke calmly. He had figures. He didn’t hesitate when answering questions.
Against that confidence, her exhaustion sounded like a poorly prepared objection.
“And it would be better if you spoke to him,” her manager added. “You two have a good relationship.”
So there was a use for that good relationship.
Alice would have to tell her colleague he was losing his job.
Her first thought was: at least they’re keeping me.
It arrived quickly, without consulting the version of Alice who considered herself a decent person.
Then she felt ashamed.
Then she wanted to ask who would cover for her when she was ill.
But the call was drawing to a close. The decision had been explained. All that remained was to carry it out.
After the call, Alice opened the spreadsheet.
She found the row with the results and clicked through to the list of documents.
Her name was next to every one.
Fair enough: she had sent them to the client.
She opened the first file.
Her colleague had gathered the material. They had prepared a draft with AI. Alice had pulled together the final version and sent it.
The second.
Her colleague had noticed that the client was comparing figures from different periods. The conclusion had needed changing. Alice had sent the corrected document.
The third.
Before they started, her colleague had spent half an hour finding out what the client actually needed. In the emails, the task looked simple. After his call, it really was simple.
The name in the spreadsheet was hers again.
The spreadsheet wasn’t lying.
It really did contain the documents, the dates and the sender’s name.
It had simply been asked to answer an additional question: how many people did it take to keep all of this happening?
That question hadn’t been part of the data collection.
The numbers were real. The conclusion had developed a life of its own.
Alice looked at her name.
Yesterday, she might have liked that column.
A good month. Plenty of results. A visible contribution.
Now her visible contribution was being used to remove the person whose work remained inside the documents.
That didn’t necessarily mean cutting the role was a mistake.
AI really was helping both of them. Some tasks had disappeared entirely. Others no longer took as long.
Perhaps the work could be organised differently.
Perhaps Alice could take on some of her colleague’s responsibilities.
But between “perhaps” and “you’ll manage” lay a calculation nobody had done.
The conversation about his job, however, had already been assigned.
Alice opened her colleague’s task list.
Some items made sense immediately.
Others needed a conversation.
Several turned out to be regular responsibilities she hadn’t known existed.
The work looked calm while somebody was keeping it that way.
Now she would have to find out how much time that took.
Alice’s new speed was already the standard. Her new fee was under discussion. New responsibilities were being added right now.
Only Alice herself remained unchanged in the calculation.
Eight working hours. One brain.
Apparently, no upgrade was required there.
Her colleague messaged first.
“Any news from the call?”
Alice opened the reply box.
She could start with “We’ve decided”.
But she hadn’t.
“It’s just how things have worked out” wasn’t right either. Nothing accidental about it: someone had opened a spreadsheet, looked at the results and deliberately decided that one person was enough.
“Given what AI can do now…”
Alice deleted that sentence.
Her colleague knew perfectly well what AI could do. They had been using it together.
Instead of replying, she sent her manager links to three documents.
Complete with comments, revision histories and one short question:
“Did we include this work when we calculated that I could manage on my own?”
The answer came almost immediately.
“Let’s not complicate things now.”
Alice leaned back in her chair.
In the next window, another message appeared from her colleague.
“I’ll finish checking your document in the meantime. There’s one thing we should discuss before you send it.”
In ten minutes, Alice would have to explain why his work was no longer needed.
First, she had to wait for him to finish it.