Business Insider: The sneaky truth about the wave of AI layoffs

Rob Lalka in sports coat photographed outside Goldring/Woldenberg Business Complex

Rob Lalka, Albert Lepage Professor in Business, was interviewed by Business Insider for a story about how tech firms are using AI to justify layoffs and then rehiring many of those formerly full-time employees as contractors.

Now, as companies make deep cuts and offload some work to contractors, they're changing the dynamic between employer and worker. Rob Lalka, a professor at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business, says the move shifts Silicon Valley's culture "towards a more 'masculine energy,' to use Zuckerberg's phrase, that is more assertive and my way or the highway and dominant in a way that is now feeding into company culture."

To read the article in its entirety, visit businessinsider.com:

https://www.businessinsider.com/sneaky-truth-ai-layoffs-switcheroo-meta-microsoft-2026-3

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