Reimagine director: AI layoffs and AI adoption spark workplace grief

The author writes from a specific vantage point: as co-founder and executive director of Reimagine, an organization that helps people navigate grief collectively, she draws a deliberate parallel between bereavement and the disruption AI is bringing to workplaces. Her argument is that people instinctively turn away from fundamental loss, and that suppressing this particular form of grief carries physical and mental health consequences — and can push people toward destructive action.

What she claims is already visible in corporate data, which she cites alongside her own organization's research. An August 2026 Gallup study found employees at organizations deploying AI extensively were significantly more likely to report a worsening workplace culture. Microsoft's Work Trend Index found 53% of workers worried that relying on AI for critical tasks made them look replaceable, while over half admitted hiding their AI usage from management entirely. Reimagine's own research with HarrisX, meanwhile, found that when major disruptions go unsupported, they produce distress comparable to grief from death loss.

Her proposed path forward is not to slow AI down. Instead, she suggests executives move past forced optimism and let employees name what they fear losing — grief over lost mastery might lead to more mentorship, grief over eroding trust to clearer norms around authorship and transparency. The stakes she describes hinge on whether leaders treat this as real loss or dismiss it as standard change resistance; if the latter, she warns, the costs land on company culture and on employees themselves.