The Workplace of Project 2025 is my novelette generated by the Perplexity AI engine when I asked it:

“Given all the information in Project 2025, write a short novel on The Workplace and how it will appear in 20 years if these policies are implemented.”

Pretty amazing and also depressing but a very logical kind of situation based on the published policy ideas of The Heritage Foundation. Here is a link to the actual document:.https://www.project2025.org/

Take a peek at the future under this kind of thinking:

In the bustling metropolis of New Horizon City, the year 2044 dawned with a stark contrast to the workplace norms of two decades prior. The skyline, once dotted with diverse corporate logos, now displayed a homogeneous array of mega-conglomerates that had absorbed smaller businesses unable to compete in the deregulated market.

The Office

Sarah Jensen, a single woman and mid-level manager at OmniCorp, stepped into the gleaming lobby of her office building right on time at 0700 hours for the start of a new day.

The security scanner hummed, verifying her identity and work authorization status. As an American-born citizen, Sarah breezed through, while her colleague Raj hesitated, fumbling for additional documentation required for non-citizen workers.

Inside, the open-plan office buzzed with activity. Gone were the colorful posters promoting diversity and inclusion that once adorned the walls. Instead, stark productivity charts and company motivational posters dominated the space. Sarah’s team was noticeably homogeneous, a result of the rollback of EEO-1 data collection and the dismantling of DEI initiatives years ago.

The Workday

As Sarah settled at her desk in the large open space, she couldn’t help but notice the absence of several long-time coworkers. The most recent wave of layoffs, made possible by weakened worker protections, had left gaps in the workforce. Those who remained worked longer hours to compensate, their overtime pay a fraction of what it once was due to revised calculation methods.

The morning meeting focused on the company’s latest cost-cutting measures. Healthcare benefits had been trimmed again, and the on-site childcare center was slated for closure. Sarah thought of her pregnant assistant, wondering how she would manage without maternity leave or affordable childcare options. Government cost-cutting efforts had eliminated most options and access to many woman’s healthcare support systems were long gone.

The Lunchroom

In the cafeteria, conversations were muted. The once-vibrant employee resource groups had disbanded years ago, deemed unnecessary in the new corporate culture. A few workers huddled in corners, whispering about the possibility of organizing. But with unions effectively neutered by legislation, their efforts seemed futile.

Sarah overheard two interns discussing their meager wages. The elimination of the federal minimum wage had led to a race to the bottom in many states, with New Horizon City becoming notorious for its low pay scales and 72-hour, 6-day workweeks. 

The Afternoon

As the day wore on, Sarah noticed the strain on her colleagues’ faces. The air felt thick and stuffy, a result of relaxed environmental regulations that had allowed companies to cut corners on air quality control. Outside, the view of the city was often obscured by smog, a common occurrence since the gutting of the EPA.

A notification popped up on Sarah’s screen – another mandatory training session on the company’s “values alignment program.” These weekly sessions had replaced the old diversity training, focusing instead on conformity to corporate ideals.

And skills training had all gone private — if you took company training, you then owed the company the money to cover the costs. So, people were on their own to find the skills training they needed and training was not something you did on company-time. At least people were still being paid for attending company meetings!

The Commute Home

At day’s end 12 hours later, Sarah joined the throng of workers flooding out of the building. The streets were congested, public transportation having deteriorated due to lack of funding. As she inched along in traffic, billboards advertised private weather forecasting services – a luxury many couldn’t afford since the dismantling of NOAA and so many other government agencies.

Sarah’s phone buzzed with a news alert: another workplace had been raided, with undocumented workers arrested en masse. She thought of the empty desks in the janitorial department, wondering if OmniCorp would be next.

As New Horizon City’s lights flickered on, Sarah couldn’t shake the feeling that something fundamental had been lost. The workplace of 2044 was efficient, streamlined, and profitable – but at what cost to the workers who kept it running?

This is Perplexity’s generation, with a couple very small edits from me.

Is this where we are headed as a society, back to the kind of workplaces detailed by Upton Sinclair in The Jungle and back to an new “conservative” era where corporations are people, but people aren’t?

We can choose to do so much more with our people and our organizations by making better choices around how we are governed and regulated. This is serious stuff…