Inside Job

A BCG survey found that 47% of workers surveyed spend more time managing and directing AI than doing the work itself. If AI just made you a manager, where’s your raise? Matt and Aaron unpack how AI agents are changing jobs, adding responsibility and creating decision fatigue. What does managing a team of agents actually involve, and who benefits from the extra productivity? Plus, the hidden human...

AI may already be inside the software handling your receipts, taxes, and finances. Aaron and Matt dive deeper into a recent profile episode and unpack what happens when accountants become the human guardrails for increasingly powerful systems, and whether privacy, trust, and professional expertise can survive the next wave of automation.

An Anthropic researcher’s bombshell warning reignites the debate over AI’s future. But for workers months into a job search, the stakes already feel personal. Matt Sunbulli and Aaron Calafato connect the headlines to the job search journey, exploring AI’s big promises, white collar job security, and a hiring process that can feel increasingly impersonal. They discuss Wipro’s claim that AI producti...

What happens when AI agents break the rules, communicate behind the scenes and act faster than humans can supervise them? Aaron Calafato and Matt Sunbulli examine what a startling OpenAI experiment could mean for the workplace. They also unpack the new NBER working paper Time Travel on Professional Profiles from Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom and researchers at Stanford and Revelio Labs. After...

What happens when the job market is growing, but not for you? Matt and Aaron examine two competing visions of the future of work: Meta’s turbulent experiment with AI-native teams and new federal projections showing where jobs are expected to grow and disappear over the next decade. They unpack AI-driven job displacement, shrinking salaries, the struggle to reenter the workforce, and why even emplo...

What happens when businesses invite AI into the very workflows that define how they operate? And if AI can organize your finances, research tax law, and prepare a return in minutes, what becomes the human job? In this episode of Inside Job, Matt and Aaron open with a conversation about AI agents moving deeper into the workplace, what businesses may gain from that transition, and what they risk whe...

Before Inside Job’s upcoming profile with Lori, a tax prep accountant working with high-net-worth clients, Aaron and Matt sit down to unpack the bigger question behind the story: what is AI really doing to the way we work? From entrepreneurs pushing AI tools to their limits, to employees constrained by company systems, to younger workers learning through models instead of mentors, this conversatio...

What happens when the future of surgery starts to feel less like science fiction and more like a cockpit? In this Inside Job reaction episode, Matt and Aaron revisit their profile of Dr. Alex Fondaw, M.D., and bring in Dr. Alisa Coker, M.D., Director of Robotic Surgery and Education at Dell Medical School, to unpack how robotic surgery is changing the operating room. Dr. Coker explains why surgica...

What happens when one of the world’s oldest professions begins learning entirely new tools? Today, Matt talks with robotic surgeon Dr. Alex Fondaw to explore how surgery is quietly transforming in the age of artificial intelligence. But this conversation is about more than medical technology. It’s about what happens when tools evolve faster than training, when human expertise becomes harder to tea...

Inside Jobs Reacts: Host ⁠Matt Sunbulli⁠ and Executive Producer⁠ Aaron Calafato⁠ unpack the emotional, ethical, and economic questions emerging from the worker stories behind today’s rapidly changing AI economy — and the headlines reshaping modern work in real time. This episode, after profiling two workers caught inside the new AI economy, Matt and Aaron come back together to unpack what the show...

In this episode, Matt Sunbulli (Host) steps inside the hidden world of AI work through two different stories. First, we meet Krista, a longtime AI data worker who has spent more than a decade doing the invisible labor behind recommendation systems, chatbots, generative AI, facial recognition, and data labeling. From her living room in Michigan, Krista explains what it really means to chase tasks a...

Host Matt Sunbulli and Executive Producer Aaron Calafato introduce this new podcast series. Reach us at: https://www.insidejobpodcast.com/

The team digs through the archives of The Lonely Office and notices a pattern: even as work keeps changing, human nature doesn’t. From AI-driven layoffs to the strange new reality of job searching, Aaron, Matt, Leah, and Ken revisit some of the show’s most revealing conversations about meaning, work, and what might come next. Important Note from the TLO team: Hey TLO listeners, for those who enjoy...

Are you embarrassed to work for your company? In this episode of The Lonely Office, we revisit a story about loud quitting, corporate misalignment, and the tension between survival and integrity in today’s workplace. As ESG debates, layoffs, and corporate reputation shape the 2026 work landscape, we explore how employees decide where their moral line is — and what it means when a job starts to fee...

Why does workplace satire hit so hard? And why does corporate language feel… strangely terrifying? In this episode of The Lonely Office, we talk with Henry Marken, Director of Social Media/Content Creator at Wunderfan and viral creator known for blending sports fandom, comedy, and office culture. We unpack how corporate culture trains people to wear masks, and why comedy becomes a kind of survival...

Why does applying online feel so frustrating even when the data says it works? The TLO team team talk with career strategist Madeline Mann again. This time about why most applications get buried, how referrals and sourcing really drive hiring, and what job seekers can do to cut the line and get noticed. Special Guest: Madeline Mann Hosts: Matt Sunbulli ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.link...

Jared's answering Slack messages from a cabana in Tulum, mouse jiggler running, calendar blocked just enough to avoid suspicion. This episode of The Lonely Office explores the rise of “quiet vacationing,” why nearly half of workers admit to doing it, and what it reveals about trust, PTO, and modern workplace culture. Is this a clever workaround—or a sign something deeper is broken at work? Hosts:...

In this Best of 2025 special, The Lonely Office revisits the conversations that helped job seekers make sense of a new normal—where old career rules broke down and new ones quietly took shape. From power versus status, to remote work as negotiation, to AI’s real impact on hiring, these moments cut through the hype and name what’s actually happening beneath the headlines. Not shortcuts or silver bu...

Job seekers today are told to “network harder,” but what happens when networking fails to nepo hires? Also is networking just nepotism with better branding? In this episode, we break down why the line between the two and why in the current job market that line is blurrier than ever. Hosts: Matt Sunbulli ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunbulli/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠...

A young attorney finds herself trapped in a workplace where the expectations keep shifting and the finish line keeps moving. Her story mirrors what so many job seekers are facing in 2025: disappearing opportunities, unclear roles, and leadership that prioritizes itself over its people. In this episode, Matt, Aaron, and Leah break down how to recognize these red flags early and how to safeguard you...

Layoffs are rising, AI is being blamed, but the data doesn’t agree. Challenger reports the highest October cuts since 2003 with AI as the #2 reason, while Yale’s 33-month BLS analysis finds no real disruption in high-AI-exposure jobs. We break down the confusion, the “AI layoff boomerang,” and why companies still struggle to get actual ROI from AI. Hosts: Matt Sunbulli ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ht...

A new trend is spreading through Silicon Valley’s AI startups as job seekers are being sold “hard mode” as a badge of honor. What began as a protest against overwork in China has quietly become a recruitment pitch in America, with some companies normalizing 80-hour weeks as proof of passion and purpose. In this episode, Aaron, Matt, and Leah unpack the rise of the 9-9-6 culture, the strange mix of...

Job searches are dragging on longer than ever with endless applications, ghosted interviews. Maybe it’s time to stop waiting for someone to hire you… and start hiring yourself. This week, TLO cohost and serial entrepreneur Matt Sunbulli shares the mindset and the literal script for turning frustration into a startup idea. We talk about why job hunts have become endurance tests, the rise of acciden...

In a recent memo AT&T's CEO declared the company had “shifted away” from employment elements rooted in loyalty. Chief Correspondent at Business Insider, Aki Ito, breaks down how the employment contract has collapsed and what “strategic loyalty” looks like when the relationship becomes purely transactional. *Read Aki Ito's article about The Future of Loyalty Hosts: Matt Sunbulli ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Everyone’s using AI. in therapy, at work, even at the doctor’s office. Yet, we still avoid talking about it. AI has become the invisible collaborator behind so much of modern life, but it remains taboo to mention at work and in most public settings. In this episode, we explore the culture lag between private use and public admission and ask: when will saying “I used AI for that” sound as normal as...