But if that doesn’t work, and A.I. is in your workplace to stay, you may have to become an A.I. enthusiast yourself — after a fashion. From your description, it sounds like your boss is more concerned with making sure you use A.I. at all than he is in the specifics of how you use it — which means you’re free to find the prompts and tools that make sense for the work you do. If he asks you to “run a draft through ChatGPT,” you don’t need to tell him that your prompt was “proofread this and don’t otherwise change it,” or “simply reproduce this exact text so I can tell my doltish boss that I ran the draft through ChatGPT without lying.”
But my real recommendation here is to turn to A.I. as an ally, not an enemy. Your boss clearly won’t listen to you, or to reason, or to experience. But there is one voice that does command his respect. Have you ever tried feeding your boss’ inappropriate, off point, A.I.-authored revisions of your draft back into ChatGPT, or, better yet, a competitor model like Claude, and asking it to review the text based on your specifications for length and topic? Sophisticated models — especially at the better, paid tiers — may not ever have the depth of experience that you do, but they’re good enough to tell when a draft is missing the mark, so long as you explain what the mark is.
It might feel vaguely insulting to have your boss rework your good drafts into unconvincing and meandering ChatGPT prose. But imagine the satisfaction of being able to return to him and say: Boss, the A.I. says this sucks.
Sidelined, but Why?
Dear Work Friend,
I have been working for my current employer for two years. During that time, I and a colleague have been assigned a project that has required little intellectual lift and less creativity. My colleague has presented herself as the manager on this project, even though I’ve been doing the work and taking the creativity as far as the client would allow.
This project has finally come to a successful completion, and even though I had been promised by the director that I’d be put on another, more creative project, instead I was informed that this colleague would be given the creative project. I was assigned another dull, maintenance-type project.
I’m an older employee. I’ve worked as a creative designer and design teacher for 30 years. I have multiple graduate degrees and have been recognized in the past, by other employers, for my work. On my own time, I’ve taught myself how to code using Claude Code and made exciting new projects for family and friends.
I’m left with wondering how I should proceed. If this is age discrimination, I cannot meet it head on, as no one is going to admit to that. If this is dissatisfaction with my work then I should ask at my performance review. Either path would put my manager and the director in an uncomfortable position that will probably backfire.
Is there anything I can do to highlight the work I’ve done without throwing my colleague under the bus? She is the golden girl on the team and I would look like the mean stepmother. How do I find out what the problem is without looking confrontational?
Thank you for any advice you might have for me.
— Old Mean Stepmother
No one wants to be seen as difficult, especially not older women, who face harsher social sanction for being too insistent or direct. It can feel much safer to be accommodating and compliant — you may not always get the credit or opportunities you deserve, but at least you won’t be seen as the “Old Mean Stepmother.”