"AI Took My Job" - AI image
©A. Derek Catalano
AI Took My Job
I showed up Monday, coffee in my hand,
Ready to work like I always had planned.
But HR looked nervous, the boss looked odd,
Then somebody whispered, “AI took your job.”
The chatbot writes emails in half of the time,
Fixes bad grammar and makes it all rhyme.
It never gets hungry, it never says “nah,”
Just sits there all smug in a server bazaar.
I used to make logos and slogans for pay,
Now prompts do my workload in under a day.
A teenager typed “make it edgy and bright,”
And boom, there’s my paycheck disappearing from sight.
The coders all laughed and said, “We’ll be fine.”
Then AI wrote software while drinking no wine.
It debugged whole systems by quarter past two,
Then asked if there’s “anything else it can do.”
The drivers got nervous, the teachers did too,
The actors and bankers all felt the wind blew.
The robots aren’t evil, they don’t stomp or rob,
They just keep applying for everybody’s job.
I tried learning welding, I tried baking bread,
But smart fridges were hired before I was fed.
The toaster got promoted, the blender got praise,
While I updated résumés for ninety straight days.
My grandma just laughed and said, “Don’t be dramatic.
Each generation thinks change is traumatic.
We lived through the radio, tractors, and TV.
Now you’re all afraid of a talking PC.”
So I started adapting instead of feeling sore,
Learned things the machines couldn’t quite do before.
Like calming a child or telling a joke,
Or knowing when someone’s heart’s quietly broke.
Now I work beside AI instead of in fear,
It handles the boring, repetitive gear.
I still have a purpose, a paycheck, a role,
Because humans bring meaning that can’t be controlled.
So if one day a robot walks into your squad,
And someone announces, “AI took my job,”
Don’t panic completely or curse at the screen,
Just learn something new and stay part of the team.
©A. Derek Catalano/ChatGPT
