Sixteen months unemployed. He applied to McDonald’s — minimum wage, fast food, a role he had done before. The first interview came through the chain’s AI bot, so he half expected nobody at the other end would even know an interview had been scheduled.
It was real, but strange. Then the manager asked him to come back for a second interview.
At McDonald’s. His last job, in government, had not required two interviews. He had the experience. He was asking why a minimum-wage counter job now runs a multi-stage process.
His conclusion was short: we have all lost our damn minds.