I’m part of the operations team at a medium-sized company, and I was really struggling to keep up with everything. With a flood of emails, tasks, meetings, and all the follow-ups, I felt overwhelmed and was falling behind on my work.
A few months ago, I started using AI tools to help me manage my tasks. These tools assist in organizing my conversations, generating to-do lists, planning my day, and reminding me of important deadlines.
The change has been remarkable. I’m finally on top of my tasks, rarely miss a deadline, and the quality of my work has noticeably improved. I’m also feeling much less stressed and enjoying my job more.
However, my manager found out about my use of these tools and approached me about it. He’s not a fan of AI for reasons I don’t fully understand, and he accused me of making the team look bad because I’m completing my work efficiently. He mentioned that real work involves struggle.
Now there’s this awkwardness between us, and he seems to think I’m somehow cheating. I don’t understand why using technology to stay organized and productive is a problem. Isn’t that the goal—to find smarter ways to accomplish our tasks? What do you think about all this?
Classic old school thinking. I’ve hit this exact situation twice.
First time I automated deployment pipelines and my director thought I was slacking. Reality? I went from 3 hours daily on manual deployments to 20 minutes. Used that time to architect better systems instead.
Your manager thinks productivity means staying busy. Wrong. Results beat looking busy every time.
Document everything for a week or two. Show him what you’re actually doing with that extra time. Taking on harder projects? Helping teammates? Catching problems early?
Frame it as skill development too. Using AI tools effectively is becoming essential. Companies that fight this get left behind.
If he keeps pushing back, ask what he actually wants. Better quality work? Hit deadlines? Team efficiency? You’re delivering exactly that.
Worst case, take it to his boss or HR. No reasonable company wants to kill productivity improvements.
Same thing happened to me when I started using project management software for automated status reports. My boss thought I wasn’t working hard enough because everything looked too polished and organized. I documented the time I saved and showed how I redirected that energy into bigger projects. I made sure to tell him about all the extra work I could handle thanks to the efficiency boost. He eventually got that these tools let me focus on strategy instead of paperwork. The trick was showing automation made me better at my job, not that it did my job for me. I’d suggest talking to your manager about how these tools free you up to tackle more important team goals.
ur manager’s stuck in the past. AI tools r like using Excel instead of doing math by hand - it’s still work, just smarter. show him how these tools help instead of replacing ur thinking. most managers chill out once they see what ur actually doing.