HR news round-up: AI worries, Gen Z burnout and WFA weeks

This week in HR news, AI voice cloning has appeared, and it’s worrying people. Meanwhile, young workers are facing a burnout crisis, and workers are beating the onsite work mandates by taking a work-from-anywhere week.

AI voice cloning: The latest threat

As reported by Accounting Times, AI voice cloning has become a tool used by scammers. This is reportedly making their scams more effective as it’s able to bypass some security protocols.

Cyber security company Recorded Future commented: “Currently, the most effective use of voice cloning technologies is in generating one-time samples that can be used in extortion scams, disinformation, or executive impersonation.”

“Technologies such as AI are making it easier for scammers to fool consumers and professionals, but also easier to quickly spread out complex scams on a wide scale.”

“The rise of deepfakes is a great example of this, and what we’re seeing is that more Australians are falling victims of these elaborate schemes,” said Recorded Future.

Employers can help mitigate the risks of voice cloning scams by training and educating staff on the matter. Identifying and reporting suspicious activity is crucial.

Young workers facing burnout

According to the BBC, Gen Z is putting in the most hours of overtime compared to other generations. This is leading to burnout among younger workers.

Research by ADP supports this claim, as people aged 18 to 24 reportedly put in an additional eight hours and 30 minutes of “free” work per week by starting early, staying late or working during breaks. For 45- to 54-year-olds, this dropped to seven hours and 28 minutes, and five hours and 14 minutes for over 55s.

According to ADP, the main factor behind this trend is job insecurity. The report found that half of respondents do not feel secure in their current role.

Careers coach Lara Holliday agreed with this idea: “[Young people] don’t have the type of security I assumed I had when I was coming out of university. I didn’t know if I’d get the job I wanted, but I knew I’d get a job and I know some day. If I worked hard, I’d be able to afford my own home. They’re coming into a very different world.”

WFA: Beating the onsite mandates

“Work-from-anywhere weeks” are the new trend that’s giving employees a break from the office, as reported by Bloomberg.

With organisations ramping up onsite working mandates, some employees are taking a break by going on a working holiday.

Bloomberg described these as: “Hybrid work schedules, but with a set amount of time allotted — usually two to four weeks — for employees to enjoy the fully remote life.”

Plenty of major companies have implemented this policy, such as Google, Visa, and Patagonia.

“Anecdotally, the companies we have heard implement ‘work-from-anywhere’ weeks often do it at the same time as implementing increased requirements to be in the office,” said Rob Sadow, chief executive of Scoop Technologies.

Harvard Business School Professor Prithwiraj Choudhury has taken up this perk and recommends it: “For workers with parents, family and friends in distant regions or distant countries, this could mean a whole month together. I think it’s a great idea.”