📣 The concept of employee value has been facing quite the test as of late, and in today’s AI-obsessed workplace, being humble at work no longer cuts it. As tech advancements threaten jobsecurity, proving you deserve your role feels more pressing than ever, which is to say, it’s time to start tooting your own horn, as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) puts it.

Likening career advancement to a popularity contest, WSJ notes that keeping a “brag book” close at hand is the way to go. The days of understating your accomplishments are over — if anyone asks about your career, you need to have a ready-made record of professional achievements to flaunt. External judgments do matter, and when companies are striving for more efficiency, they look to their employees for evidence of success.

From USD bn conglomerates to grassroots startups, it’s happening everywhere. Tech giant Amazon, which laid off 16k workers this month, recently asked its employees to submit three to five examples of their best work, a move that echoes the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) demand that state workers list their accomplishments… orresign. So, whether you’re dealing with a performance review, in the middle of a promotion cycle, simply networking or job searching, your smartest tactic is to march to the beat of your own drum and make sure everyone hears it.

The brag book

When it comes to crafting a strong resume, a brag book is indeed your greatest asset. Recruiters now increasingly use software to scan for keywords. When your resume includes detailed accounts of your impact, you have a better chance of being noticed and considered for the job. Keeping such an exhaustive list of your successes may also mean asking for recognition. As potentially uncomfortable as it sounds, asking your managers to praise your performance isn’t just about bragging rights, it’s about maintaining a record.

If you’re an overloaded manager who has to juggle performance reviews and promotion cycles, presenting an overview of your key achievements makes your job easier. Even though you might have had a standout run a few months back, your manager might need a reminder when recency bias sets in.

Just as AI is threatening our employability, we now find ourselves seeking out friction in our lives — proof that we exist, and we matter. Friction-maxxing — as The Cut puts it — makes the argument for “building up a tolerance for inconvenience,” a notion now taking shape amid the all-encompassing culture of convenience.

Why convenience might cost you your job

When we let AI do all the work for us, we’re dismissing our value. In-person meetings have given way to easier and more frequent video call meetings. Automated note-taking and auto-generated email replies have quietly seeped into our workflows, all in the name of AI productivity. But is it actually making us more productive?

AI-overdependence hits our critical thinking. Outsourcing your whole intellect leads to what researchers call “cognitive atrophy” — a gradual decline in cognitive function that involves the loss of neurons and connections in the brain. But even if we manage to preserve our mental sharpness, friction and difficulty remain a “constitutive feature of human experience,” according to The New York Times.

This tension is playing out in the job market — and in how employee value is being recognized. Just when job-hunting seemed hard enough, frictionless tech has made it harder for both recruiters and applicants alike. Tools that allow job seekers to apply to hundreds of jobs with an easy click have flooded recruiters with volume, making it harder for both sides to find the right match. Friction, as it turns out, is a valuable element for job matching — and job retention.

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