Lede

When prices jump and people ask for fair wages, too many managers reach for the same dusty slogan: “Be grateful you exist.”

Hermit Off Script

This whole topic is about that last-manager-mindset when pay rises arrive late, inflation arrives early, the world is on fire, and the response to “can we live?” is “you’re lucky you have a job!” Oh bloody hell. We don’t need AI managers without heart and human intellect, because plenty of human managers have already been running on firmware from 2003 – bland, scripted, and allergic to empathy. And here’s the part nobody wants to say out loud: we have been training for this for ages. We were robots doing chores for survival in hunting days, then agriculture, then industrialisation, and the punchline is that the first “robots” were always humans. The dream was supposed to be that real robots take the physical grind so humans can keep the meaning. Instead, we got a world where the labour is “flexible”, the costs are “rising”, and the pay is “maybe next quarter”. Meanwhile, some managers talk like pay rises are charity, even as executive pay and dividends can make an OnlyFans streamer blush. So yes, bring on the age of AI superintelligence – because the jobs most likely to get replaced first are the ones that mostly involve meetings about meetings, not the ones that require actual hands and actual risk. And when that happens, the managers will discover that thinking like a human before thinking like a corporate minion requires emotional intelligence – which, in too many cases, has been missing for years. The cruel bit is that when the axe swings, leadership roles often have savings, cushions, shares, networks, golden goodbyes – workers have rent. Then comes the sales pitch: universal basic income, pushed hardest by people who can afford a future where nobody works, while the rest are told to be grateful for the minimum. Companies already struggle with fair wages now, so why would the robot era magically make them generous? They will hand the mess to governments, governments will repackage it as “support”, and the rich will get richer while the poor get poorer – with the added bonus of becoming softer, quieter, more compliant. And if you want the final twist of the knife, virtual reality will become the new heaven sold by the modern belief merchants: a shiny mind-fog subscription for those inside the system, and a cold, unfiltered nightmare for anyone locked out. Paradise, but only if your card details clear.

What does not make sense

• Inflation can sprint, but wages must walk politely, head bowed, asking permission.
• “You’re lucky” is treated as management wisdom, not as a confession of a broken deal.
• Physical work is called “low skill” until it needs doing at 3 a.m. in the rain.
• Executive pay is “market rate”, but frontline pay is “cost pressure”.
• UBI is pitched as compassion, while basic pay is treated as negotiable vibes.
• VR is sold as escape, not as evidence that reality has become unliveable for many.

Sense check / The numbers

1. UK CPI inflation hit 11.1 per cent in October 2022 – the highest in the ONS CPI series (from January 1997). [ONS]
2. UK CPI inflation was 3.4 per cent in December 2025 (up from 3.2 per cent in November). [ONS]
3. In real terms (CPIH-adjusted), annual regular pay growth was 0.6 per cent in September to November 2025, while private-sector regular earnings growth was 3.6 per cent year on year. [ONS]
4. Median FTSE 100 CEO pay was GBP 4.58 million in 2024/25, about 122 times the median UK full-time worker; FTSE 100 firms with CEOs paid GBP 10 million+ rose from 10 to 13. [High Pay Centre]
5. A large US study backed by an OpenAI founder tested US$1,000 per month payments to low-income participants, reporting greater flexibility and autonomy for recipients. [Bloomberg / OpenResearchLab]
6. The ONS added VR headsets to its 2025 inflation basket, citing spending of around GBP 350 million in 2024. [ONS]

The sketch

Scene 1: Gratitude Training
Panel: Office kitchen, someone holding a payslip like it’s a tragic poem.
Worker: “Could we talk about a pay rise? Prices are up again.”
Manager: “You are lucky you have a job.”
Kettle: “Click.”
Scene 2: The Meeting That Ate Tuesday
Panel: A conference room. Ten people. One slide: “Alignment”.
Manager: “We must reduce costs.”
Worker: “Start with this meeting.”
Manager: “Let’s schedule a meeting to discuss that.”
Scene 3: Heaven, Now With Monthly Billing
Panel: Two doors. One says “Reality”. One says “VR Paradise (Subscription)”.
Government: “Support is available.”
Company: “We care.”
Person at the door: “Do you take rent as a feeling?”

What to watch, not the show

• Executive incentives: bonuses reward short-term margins, not long-term dignity.
• Wage-setting power: fragmented workers, concentrated employers.
• Narrative control: “gratitude” language used to mask bargaining.
• Automation politics: tech gains privatised, social costs dumped.
• Safety nets as PR: UBI talk can distract from fair pay today.
• Escape markets: VR, gambling, doom-scrolling – anything to numb the spreadsheet life.

The Hermit take

If your best wage policy is “be grateful”, you’re not managing – you’re rationing dignity.
AI will not fix soulless management, it will simply automate the soullessness.

Keep or toss

Keep / Toss
Keep the demand for fair wages tied to real costs.
Toss the moral blackmail, and the idea that survival pay is a privilege.

Sources

• ONS CPI inflation (October 2022): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/october2022
• ONS CPI inflation (December 2025): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/december2025
• ONS Average weekly earnings (January 2026): https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/january2026
• High Pay Centre CEO pay report summary (Aug 2025): https://highpaycentre.org/ceo-pay-in-the-ftse-100-reaches-record-high-for-the-third-year-in-a-row/
• Guardian summary of High Pay Centre findings (Aug 2025): https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/17/record-salaries-for-uk-chief-executives-as-pay-rises-for-third-year-in-a-row
• ONS inflation basket (2025): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/ukconsumerpriceinflationbasketofgoodsandservices/2025
• OpenResearchLab Unconditional Cash Study: https://www.openresearchlab.org/studies/unconditional-cash-study/study
• Bloomberg on US basic income study backed by an OpenAI founder (Jul 2024): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-22/ubi-study-backed-by-openai-s-sam-altman-bolsters-support-for-basic-income