Paper Cut: Insights for Monday, Delivered on Sunday

[26 OCT] PAPER CUT: The Productivity Mirage Meets The Pink-Slip Economy

AI agents promise lift. Pink slips deliver reality. Gen Z gets squeezed while remote-first shops drown in applicants. This week: productivity hype, adoption whiplash, and the broken rungs of early careers collide.

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By EBN Oct 26, 2025 11 min read

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[19 OCT] PAPER CUT: Fear, Not AI, Is Fueling The Cuts

This week’s tension: executives blame AI for layoffs while memos whisper something else. Skills become policy. Workers call the RTO bluff. Employer brands either get honest or get ignored.

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By EBN Oct 20, 2025 8 min read

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[12 OCT] PAPER CUT: Trust Theater, AI Scoreboards, and Hiring Whiplash

Bosses doubled down on control while pretending it is culture. AI got a scoreboard. Candidates spotted red flags from miles away. The fix is simple, not easy: trust, clarity, and real skills.

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By EBN Oct 12, 2025 10 min read

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[05 OCT] PAPER CUT: The Jobs Are There. The Offers Aren’t.

Recruiting gets weird when growth holds, hiring cools and skills beat pedigrees. Signals are noisy. Strategy cannot be.

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By EBN Oct 5, 2025 9 min read

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[28 SEP] PAPER CUT: Hybrid Creep, Burnout, and Workslop

Hybrid creep returns, HR burns out, visas get pricier, and AI workslop clogs the pipes. Agency or control is not theory. It is this week’s operating model.

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By EBN Sep 28, 2025 9 min read

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[21 SEP] PAPER CUT: Carrots, Sticks, and Agentic HR

AI is redrawing org charts. Some redeploy and pay up; others surveil and spin. Your employer brand is the choice: agency or control.

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By EBN Sep 21, 2025 8 min read

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[14 SEP] PAPER CUT: Consulting Gets Rewritten by AI While Workers Play Defense

Layoffs stretch, mandates multiply, and consulting gets resized by AI. Workers hedge. Leaders talk trust. The gap is where your brand is made.

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By EBN Sep 14, 2025 10 min read

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[07 SEP] PAPER CUT: Hard Reset, Soft Demand

Executives are cutting for speed, offices get rules not reasons, and white-collar workers hug what they have. The only thing scaling this week is scrutiny.

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By EBN Sep 7, 2025 10 min read

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[31 AUG] PAPER CUT: Cuts, Checklists and the Big Stay

AI promises savings, managers disappear, and workers hunker down. The storyline this week is simple, prove value or lose trust.

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By EBN Aug 31, 2025 8 min read

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[24 AUG] PAPER CUT: Green Lights, Red Flags, Real Work

Surveillance gets slick. AI hype meets the finance team. Entry-level careers wobble. This week is about trust, not toys.

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By EBN Aug 24, 2025 6 min read

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[17 AUG] PAPER CUT: Traffic Lights, Shrinking Giants, Skill Truths

Surveillance is in, hiring is out, and skill beats swagger. This week: dashboards at the door, employers on a diet, and the real currency in the AI age.

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By EBN Aug 17, 2025 7 min read

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[10 AUG] PAPER CUT: Stall Speed, Fast Cuts, Frayed Trust

Jobs slow to a crawl while automation speeds up. Leaders promise calm. Workers see whiplash.

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By EBN Aug 10, 2025 7 min read