We’re living in strange times.

First, we had the pandemic and everything became remote. Only a few years later, many big companies started calling employees back to the office. Then they began investing heavily in AI.

At the same time, we as employees are still trying to understand our future, while news about layoffs keeps increasing.

Only recently, Meta employees launched a protest against “mouse-tracking tech” in US offices, as reported by Reuters. It’s not only the badges anymore. Even our mouse movements are tracked.

And the question is: Why is trust moving away from people and toward machines?

When companies started calling employees back to the office, their reasons were clear: better productivity, more innovation, stronger business performance, and improved company culture.

But in 2024, a Stanford study showed something different. Employees who worked remotely two days a week were just as productive, and hybrid work significantly improved retention.

Still, many companies continued pushing for full return-to-office policies.

It is almost ironic — companies are calling people back to the office to improve learning and collaboration, but they forget to build human-centered workplaces.

It often sounds like this: “We don’t trust you enough to work remotely.” But at the same time: “We trust machines—even experimental ones—enough to automate work.”

So again, why is trust flowing to machines?

Is it because we believe we can control them better? Because we can measure and monitor them all the time?

This is not a complaint. It is a contradiction in leadership and organizational behavior.

To me, this signals a growing erosion of trust—and that is a dangerous place for the future of work.

This push and pull for control is not new. The tension between management and employees, declining motivation, disengagement, and loss of leadership credibility are not new either.

Yet, the erosion of trust is growing.

Employee petitions and reactions already show that not everyone agrees with strict return-to-office policies.

The real problem is not where people work or which AI tools we use— It is the shrinking trust between leaders and their organizations.

And trust cannot be outsourced to an algorithm.

This is especially important because lack of trust and low psychological safety directly slow down innovation and AI adoption.

A December 2025 report by MIT Technology Review Insights highlights this clearly. It says “the majority of executives surveyed (83%) believe a company culture that prioritizes psychological safety measurably improves the success of AI initiatives.” Psychological safety is critical for AI success, and even more important than the technology itself in many cases.

In this AI era, I don’t want strong leadership to mean being less human. It should mean trusting people first, being transparent, giving autonomy and flexibility, and keeping decisions human-centered.

If leaders want people to embrace AI, they must show that trust works both ways.

Because innovation thrives where people feel valued—not constantly monitored and controlled.

Initially published on Linkedin.