I used it several years ago to justify the need to prioritize a certain project at work, saying it took 3 FTEs working around the clock for this one thing that could be fully automated. Based on my math this was true, but it’s not like anyone was only doing this one thing, it was mixed in throughout their day of doing other stuff as well.

My intent was to get this mind numbing work automated so these people could do more useful and interesting work; there was plenty to do. Fast forward to when the work was rolled out… they laid off 3 people. I had no idea that was coming, and yelled at management over it when I found out. I felt responsible. A lot of trust was broken all around with that move.

What I’ve done more recently has saved hundreds of thousands of hours of human time. Management isn’t bringing up that stat (at least to me) and I’m not going to put it in their head. They’re likely to lay off whole departments.