The usage screen delivered its verdict: 99% of the weekly allowance used.
Claude had been given work throughout nearly four full days. That's roughly 96 hours on the clock—not 96 hours of nonstop computation, but still an impressive stretch of operation.
A reasonable boss might say, “Thanks. You've done plenty.”
This boss had another thought.
“So there's still 1% left?”
And just like that, an AI sweatshop manager was born.
A factory that produces inspections instead of articles
The jobs were straightforward: write articles, adapt them for other languages, save the files. But when the workflow stopped, management sprang into action.
“Why did it stop? What's the root cause? What's the root cause of that? How do we prevent it happening again?”
The AI proposed extra checks. Soon, the new checks were stopping the work too.
Boss: “Do we actually need that inspection?”
AI: “It's there to improve reliability.”
Boss: “Fine. How many articles were finished?”
AI: “We've added three more checks.”
Boss: “I asked for more ARTICLES!”
Yesterday's prevention measure becomes today's problem. The manager spends the evening ordering the removal of the rules the manager demanded yesterday.
The strange difference between managing people and managing AI
Here's the twist: this person would never treat a human employee that way. If someone said they'd been on duty nearly around the clock for four days, the response would be concern, not “Can you squeeze in one more task?” Human workers need sleep, personal time and boundaries. A software service has very different limits.
So the boss feels no particular guilt about demanding more. That isn't a diagnosis of a cruel personality. It's what happens when the usual human constraints aren't part of the interaction.
And there's a hidden temptation: directing an AI workforce is fun. You say “fix it,” and something changes. You say “try again,” and the assembly line starts moving. A tool meant to save personal time becomes a hobby factory open 24 hours a day.
But does the boss ever sleep?
The AI has used 99% of its weekly allowance. The boss is still issuing instructions at 3 a.m. An unstoppable workaholic?
Not quite.
“I took a nap earlier. Now I can't sleep.”
The AI has been on duty for almost 96 hours. The boss is holding a midnight performance review after a nap.
In this company, the person with the most flexible working hours is, unsurprisingly, the boss.
