ChatGPT, Tattoos & Treadmills
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #171 ❤️
This week it’s officially back to school, and we’ll be bringing you the latest in what’s going on as we all go back to work.
Including ChatGPT being allowed into the classroom, the best paying job of the year, and how many tattoos can you reasonably have if you want to work in a good position?
Plus, we’re asking should you be vulnerable on LinkedIn, and is the walking desk the hamster wheel of the 2020s?
Let's get into it.
Were you forwarded this? Not a subscriber? 👉 Sign up here
#1 - ChatGPT Goes To School
Students in the US are heading back to class with one more thing in their pencil case along with their rulers and calculators, the ability to use ChatGPT in lessons.
Initially banned across school districts in the US, notably after many essays began using the opening the phrase “As an AI, I…” the tides are beginning to change, with around 75% of teachers believing it’s important to teach students how to use AI tools properly, which entails allowing the use of them in class.
Some teachers want to use AI tools much in the same way as calculators are used, to cut down some of the busy work in class and allowing students to use their brainpower for higher-level thinking (incidentally, this is pretty much how we described the uses of AI in our dedicated AI article – check it out here).
For example, possible classroom applications have been suggested, such as using ChatGPT as a debate partner or a brainstorming partner for essays, personalised tutoring through specific AI tools, or to help teachers determine whether an assignment is too easy by asking the bot to do it first.
Teachers have also come to the realization that banning ChatGPT at school only serves to disadvantage kids who don’t have access to the technology at home, which seems pretty unfair for them. Imagine having to go to the library to find out the information that your peers are getting on google.
Teachers will have to keep an eye out for plagiarism more than ever, though, as OpenAI have just announced that ChatGPT generated work is largely undetectable, as software that claims to filter it out apparently doesn’t work. But, then again, they would say that.
#2 - AI Experts Getting The Big Bucks
The hottest new big-ticket job is, you guessed it, AI expert. And while that much might be obvious from the title, we bet you can’t even IMAGINE the top paycheck companies are willing to shell out to get ahead in the AI game.
According to a recent job posting (which ironically went live while unionized actors and writers strike over disputes about fair pay and the future of AI in entertainment) Netflix are willing to pay up to $900,000 a year for a product manager on the Machine Learning Platform Team. Did your eyes just pop out of your head? Yeah, us too.
While salaries elsewhere are lower, they’re still high. TikTok and Hubspot are offering jobs as AI platform engineers around the 200-to-400,000-dollar mark. Half as much as Netflix, sure, but still up to 4x as much as what we would consider a pretty top-level salary.
By expert though, they do actually mean expert. As the AI race heats up, companies need, or at least they think they need, the top talent to help them adopt the tech, and as experienced specialists are in short supply they’ve become an extra-hot commodity.
Because while we’re all obsessed with AI now, the top talent have been in the field since well before it was in most people’s field of vision.
So what do we do now? Go back in time and become an AI expert in preparation for this very moment, we guess.
#3 - Tattoos & Work - No Longer Enemies?
While “imagine how it’ll look when you’re old and wrinkled” probably still stands up, conservative parents may have just lost one of their top arguments against tattoos – how it’ll negatively affect you in the workplace.
As the race for talent continues, many companies are loosening their rules on tattoos in the workplace, including the notoriously strict Disney park, along with other big names like Virgin Atlantic and UPS.
When Carol Tome was named CEO of UPS in 2020, one of her key aims was to increase employee satisfaction, and to do so she decided to tackle the strict dress code, which banned natural hair (i.e. braids for African Americans), facial hair, and tattoos.
The VP of people and culture at UPS, Christopher Bartlett, stated that the loosening of the dress code policy on tattoos would “create a more modern workplace for our employees that allows them to bring their authentic selves to work”.
They started at the source, conducting a series of culture surveys, discussions with employees and other research, settling on a policy which allows tattoos to be kept visible, within reason (no offensive words or images, no face tattoos, etc.).
Bartlett noted that nowadays, tattoos “matter to people”. They’re not done on a whim, they’re often meaningful and make up part of who the person is, and therefore not forcing employees to hide them behind long sleeves or skin coloured bandages will go a long way to allow people to be their true selves in the workplace.
The stats also show that things have changed in the workplace with regards to tattoos, over half of employed adults are inked up, and they’re often earning more than those who aren’t. In addition, customers are more accepting of tattooed workers in service roles than they used to be.
New York City, as they often do, will be going one step further, as they vote on a bill that would add tattoos to the list of factors that count as discrimination in the workplace, along with race, gender and sexuality, which will make it officially illegal to refuse you a job due to your tattoos if it’s voted in. And that’s including face ones this time…
#4 - What Your LinkedIn Says About You
Often, too much.
A recent study by North Caroline State University set out to find out how open we can be online about mental health before it affects the way we’re seen by potential employers. They stated that while we’re often encouraged to post about our mental health online nowadays, in the noble attempt at reducing stigma around the subject, it could potentially have consequences when it comes to getting a job later on.
The study itself entailed the enlisting of over 400 professionals with hiring experience being shown the same LinkedIn profile, with and without posts mentioning the candidates struggle with anxiety and depression.
The participants who saw the LinkedIn post about mental health challenges were found to view the job candidate as less emotionally stable and less conscientious, and therefore, probably, less likely to get the job.
Researchers decided that the study was necessary as while we’re currently experiencing what they called “a big push” to always be our “full authentic selves”, there has been, up until now, little research on the consequences, positive or negative.
It turns out that being “too” open about mental health struggles online may have an adverse effect on your hireability, but the study has also opened the door on the implication for employers on how they use LinkedIn to look up potential candidates, raising the question of what kind of guidelines could be implemented to encourage equitable comparisons among all candidates, including those who openly discuss mental health challenges.
While many companies claim to have an inclusive culture, and encourage being your true self, it seems like that self still needs to fit the classic mold.
#5 - Walking From Home
With changing lifestyles having made us office-dwellers largely sedentary creatures over the past couple of decades, this last couple of years may have considerably sped up our transformation into the flabby humans from the Wall-E film (if you don’t know what we’re talking about, check it out, it’s scarily plausible).
While before we spent about 7 hours of our day at a desk, give or take a wander to and from the coffee machine, we also had to get there and back, which forced us to stretch our legs a bit. Depending on the commute, that could mean a pretty hefty walk to and from public transport, or a car drive, but hey maybe your office was on the 6th floor and the lift freaked you out so there’s an extra couple hundred steps already. Now, many of us walk down the stairs and into work, or, if you’re in an apartment, you don’t even need to do that much.
To halt the impending muscle atrophy, many remote workers have invested in a “walking desk”. People on TikTok are raving about it, as are actual normal people. The walking desk set-up is touted as a way to get the recommended amount of exercise to stay healthy, without losing any productivity.
However, we can’t help but be torn between thinking it’s a great way to kill two birds with one stone, and the image of a hamster on a wheel… It’s a genius way to multitask, but it’s also kind of dystopian. Plus, it’ll put you back at least £700 for a decent one.
Outside is cheaper, and your laptop isn’t there.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Podcasts For Kids
This week we discovered that podcasts specifically aimed at children exist, and there are literally loads of them.
We’re unsure what the use of them is, except for listening as a family during car journeys, but hey – any educational content is good educational content, right?
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.