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In today's big story, welcome to the age of office paranoia, where layoffs, AI, and job insecurity are terrorizing workers.

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But first, we need to talk.

The company snacks are worse. The office air conditioning goes out. An unexpected meeting appeared on your calendar. The signs all point toward one thing: looming layoffs.

Or not. Sometimes, things are just as mundane as they appear. It's what experts call "paranoid attribution," when employees read negative meaning into regular workplace occurrences.

It's occurring in workforces across America. It's not hard to understand why: AI is threatening to take jobs, strict RTO orders are becoming more common, and the Great Flattening is coming for middle management.

"Workers are feeling disempowered," said Michele Williams, a professor of management and entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa. "They're looking for these social cues and overinterpreting social cues because of that insecurity."

Meanwhile, the reality is that layoff rates are still low — relative to historic levels — and remain concentrated in white-collar sectors, especially at big-name companies that dominate headlines. In other words, things may not be as bad as they seem.

But the paranoia is still reshaping the workplace.

The fear isn't good for anyone, BI's Juliana Kaplan writes. When employees are anxious about their career security, they probably aren't doing their best work.

One worker that BI spoke with has completely changed her perspective on her career after getting laid off twice in two years. The first time was the day that she had arranged a return-to-office party for the workers reporting to her.

"It's really hard to go to work every day and to know that you may not have a future here no matter how hard you work," she said.

On the other hand, fear can be terribly efficient. When companies shift toward a more "hardcore" management style, they are generally banking on employees clinging to well-worn adages about becoming indispensable at work.

Employees were supposed to become hyper-focused, not hyper-concerned. Now, staffers are looking at the corporate world a little differently — and some are turning their back on it altogether.