May 14, 2026
Leaderboard of Doom
Have a Coherent AI Policy
Bosses tried to score workers by AI usage — commenters called it fake productivity theater
TLDR: A software manager blasted the trend of ranking employees by how much AI they use and set a policy focused on understanding the work, not chasing numbers. Commenters loved the attack on bogus metrics, but argued hard over whether workers should still be able to do the job without AI at all.
A manager’s warning about “tokenmaxxing” — basically, bosses ranking workers by how much they use AI tools — has hit a nerve because commenters say it feels like the same old bad management in a shiny new costume. The article compares it to an executive literally timing office workers with a stopwatch, and the crowd’s reaction was basically: yep, that level of nonsense is alive and well. The writer’s answer was to make a simple team policy: no one is forced to use AI, you must understand any code it gives you, and you should still be able to function if the tool vanishes tomorrow.
But the real fireworks were in the comments. One reader instantly derailed into style-policing, declaring that the phrase “in the year of our Lord” made them tune out on sight — a tiny grammar war breaking out before the policy debate even got started. Others were far more heated about company hypocrisy: one commenter slammed bosses who limit staff to older, weaker AI systems and then complain employees are “stuck in the mud.” Another flat-out rejected the author’s rule that workers should be able to do their jobs without AI, essentially saying, sorry, the toothpaste is out of the tube.
There was also a more serious undercurrent: some commenters pointed to DORA, a workplace research group, saying companies actually should have a clear public stance on AI. And academia caught strays too, with one person roasting schools for having vague, mushy rules that confuse everyone. Bottom line: the community seems united on one thing — measuring AI use is dumb, but pretending AI doesn’t matter is just as clueless.
Key Points
- •The article uses a past example of stopwatch-based employee timing at a law firm to illustrate how simplistic productivity metrics can fail.
- •It criticizes "tokenmaxxing," described as ranking engineers by AI token usage, as a gamable and misleading KPI.
- •The author says AI tools raise ethical concerns and produce inconsistent productivity gains, but still represent a major shift in software engineering.
- •The team policy described in the article says there is no mandate to use AI tools and that employees will not be evaluated on AI usage volume.
- •The policy requires developers to understand AI-generated code, remain capable if AI tools disappear, and prioritize teammates and customers.