I came across this word while reading a blog by Seth Godin, quoting Cory Doctorow.
“Enshittification isn’t the decay that comes from neglect. It’s the active squeeze, trading the path of better for the short-term goal of making a few more pennies.”
In simple llanguage, it’s when something doesn’t get worse by accident.
It gets worse on purpose, because squeezing people is temporarily more profitable than serving them well.
For example, in workplaces, enshittification looks like this:
• Cutting headcount without fixing broken systems
• Increasing KPIs without increasing support
• “Optimising cost” by squeezing the same people harder
On spreadsheets, it looks clever.
But who are we kidding?
Irl, it feels suffocating, right?!
As someone who has sat in leadership rooms, I’ve seen how easy it is to justify these decisions.
Cut a few pennies here.
Extend a bit more margin there.
Short-term wins are rewarded faster than long-term care.
And once people feel like they’re being “actively squeezed” rather intentionally grown, disengagement is the consequence.
Cory Doctorow is right.
Platforms decay once users are trapped and extraction becomes the strategy.
Cost-cutting without fixing root problems are just band-aids on bullet holes.
Think about it.
