Issue #31: The Great Career Outage of 2025
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💌 From the Editor’s DeskWelcome back to Work In Progmess, where we’ve learned that the cloud may be powerful, but it still needs a nap every now and then. Yesterday’s massive AWS outage took down half the internet and, according to some reports, most people’s ability to function without it. Careers stalled, interviews imploded, and global productivity was last seen spinning in a loading loop. Things are mostly running again today, but the damage has been done. Here’s what we learned. — The Mess 📰Headline ShockerGLOBAL CLOUD OUTAGE SENDS WORKFORCE INTO PANIC: THOUSANDS OF JOB INTERVIEWS ABANDONED MID-SENTENCE Experts confirm humanity’s critical thinking servers were also affected. SEATTLE, WA — In what analysts are calling “Super Bowl Monday for tech support”, yesterday’s major AWS outage triggered a chain reaction across industries, wiping out websites, streaming platforms, and an alarming percentage of humanity’s ability to think independently. Recruiters reported mass interview cancellations after candidates realized ChatGPT, LinkedIn AI, and résumé rewriters were all inaccessible. “We had over 1,400 no-shows in the first hour,” said HR director Melissa Tran. “Apparently no one could answer, ‘Tell me about yourself,’ without opening a browser tab.” The outage also impacted communications platforms, leaving teams unable to schedule meetings about the meetings they couldn’t attend. “It’s chaos,” said one manager, refreshing Slack every seven seconds. “For the first time in years, we might actually have to walk over and talk to each other.” Career coaches are calling this a wake-up call for professionals who rely too heavily on digital tools to think, write, or express basic human emotion. “People forget that skills like problem-solving and communication existed before the cloud,” said one expert. “We used to call it… working.” Despite widespread confusion, a few individuals reportedly thrived during the outage. One employee, using only instinct and a legal pad, invented a new workflow system that analysts say “sort of looks like a to-do list.” 🪑 From The Editor’s Desk
Look, the outage may be over, but the lesson is worth keeping: if your entire professional identity collapses when the Wi-Fi does, you may have built your career on a single point of failure.
The best leaders have backup systems: curiosity, creativity, adaptability, and actual conversation. The things that don’t go offline when your cloud does.
So here’s your action item: build your human redundancy plan. The next time the servers crash, be the person who doesn’t.
📩Until Next Time…Forward this to someone who still says, “Let me ask ChatGPT how to answer that question.” Then challenge them to write one original thought before the cloud crashes again. — The Progmess Editorial Team 🔗 Bitter End When the cloud crashes, your growth shouldn’t. 💙 Join the waitlist for Blue, the app that helps you build a personal operating system that never goes offline. Find us on all the Socials! |
