I work in international freight and this is still a thing. Most customs brokers are email now, but some still require documents be faxed. So our system takes the PDF that it auto generates for every shipment and faxes it to the number on file. From time to time those same brokers will email us a copy of the PDF we faxed them to have something corrected. So they are getting the fax in their email rather than having us just email the thing directly. It makes zero sense, like I understand keeping the fax capability for legacy customers and as a backup, but your primary should be email if it's all going there anyway.
I have never met that kind of person that won't accept a short answer that actually answers a question.
What I have seen plenty of is people that are completely sure nobody else will accept short answers. They specifically will always accept it, of course, but nobody else.
I'm unemployed. A few years ago, the Finnish government introduced a requirement that all job seekers must submit up to 4 applications per month. (This was stupid from both the applicant and recruitment perspective. They did this anyway. Oh, companies just get swamped by applications? :surprised_pikachu:)
Then I started hearing news that major companies are screening applications based on AI analysis. And then I attended one job applicant event where one of the sessions was literally "using ChatGPT to write a cover letter".
I'm in software development. I don't expect to be employed again anytime soon. (Unless I bullshit my way to some AI job using ChatGPT, but hey, I have a few vestiges of morality left.)
UK here and I was unemployed/irregularly employed back around 2012-2014. The requirement was like 10 applications a week.
I used a web plugin that automated it. Just one click applies. You also need to log each thing you do to search for a job. It is trivial to lie. Honestly the system is so awful I think it actually makes it harder to find a job than having zero requirements beyond being unemployed. Not like it's enough money to live off anyway, it would comfortably cover food and water, but that is all.
Then they made me work full time at Argos (retail) to continue getting welfare payments which works out to less than a quarter of minimum wage.
Now its iirc 5 hours of jobhunting and applying every single day? You exhaust every opening within 50 miles in the first week. Though less so these days because every job demands you spend 90 minutes filling out a survey no one will look at.
Yup. In theory, it's a program to gently kick the job applicants to apply for more jobs, which sounds like a good thing. In practice, it's yet another way for the authorities to breathe down the neck of job applicants to document the busywork they're already doing, and make sure they're doing nothing productive besides sitting by their phones and waiting for calls (that probably never come because you just annoyed every potential employer by spamming them with applications).
Several years ago, Finnish authorities did another experiment. Universal basic income for a few lucky recipients! People who participated in this couldn't believe how awesome it was to freely engage in a bunch of modern freelancing options that the unemployment benefits program just straight up banned. I hear it was awesome while it lasted. Now, they decided to do this mandatory application bullshit for the rest of the unemployed populace. I'm hoping they got all of the data on which of the options was more productive, because from my point of view, this hasn't been it!
I sent a department wide email announcing a new release on an internal piece of software my team maintains, it was very concise, almost like a telegram, it was something like:
To everyone at this department:
Internal Software version 6 has been released.
Added support for ABC feature and fixed the issue with XYZ.
Full details in this link.
Kinds regards, me.
Shortly after I got a very verbose response by someone explaining me why should I use AI to write "better" emails, by better it meant longer and verbose. I replied with this comic
The worst is TikTok man. So many AI bot accounts pumping up Trump. It's nutts. The algorithm doesn't even care anymore. You hate Trump and MAGA? You still get that trash on feeds. If I didn't have a wife, I wouldn't even have the app.
We have been told we have to use copilot at work and they made up a bunch of bullshit reasons to use it. Most were just reasons not to use ChatGPT. I locally host my own LLMs but don't use them that often.
I can't even describe how confused and annoyed at this. Why do things have to be made complicated and not simplified instead. With everything, make things more simple, devices too which would make them more repairable. You really do not need separate apps for your fridge, dishwasher and coffee maker. Just have dumb fridge, dishwasher with few buttons and french press/whatever way you like your coffee prepared. The buirocracy is just idiotic to me.