Human Resources

Service Model #0.5

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Set years before Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s all-too plausible short story navigates a world where humans are increasingly redundant.

“Holring and Baselard value your contribution to our team”

As one of the last non-robot employees at Holring and Baselard, Tim Stock retains a vital role in the human resources firing the multinational conglomerate’s remaining human workers.

But the soul-crushing task eats away at Tim. As he watches the company replace his human colleagues with cheaper labor, Tim starts to question his own job security. After all, what use could robots possibly have for an HR department?

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Dystopia, Near Future

20 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 30, 2025

About the author

ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.

Reviews

[HaMiT · Rating 4 out of 5]

تیم استاک به عنوان مسئول منابع انسانیِ یه شرکت کل مسئولیتش شده اخراج کارمندهای انسانی که با روبات‌ها و هوش مصنوعی جایگزین می‌شن و بابت این موضوع دچار مشکلات روحی شده
یه داستانِ کوتاهِ علمی‌تخیلی با ایده‌ی نسبتاً ساده و شاید حتی کمی تکراری، ولی پرداخت خیلی خوب و طنز سیاهی که داشت باعث شده بود تأثیرگذار بشه
چشم‌اندازی از یه محیط کارِ نه چندان غیرقابل باور در آینده
می‌تونستم سه ستاره بدم ولی جمله‌ی پایانیش اینقدر خوب بود که یه ستاره دیگه اضافه می‌کنم

[ابوالفضل نصری · Rating 4 out of 5]

«منابع انسانی» یکی از آن داستان‌های کوتاهیه که با وجود حجم کم، دنیایی کامل و گزنده رو پیش چشم آدم می‌گذاره. آدرین چایکوفسکی با طنز تلخ همیشگی‌اش، کارمندی رو به تصویر می‌کشه که وظیفه‌اش صرفاً اجرای بی‌روح اخراج‌های پیاپی در شرکتی غرق در اتوماسیونه؛ شرکتی که از انسان‌ها فقط به عنوان برچسب روی گزارش‌ها استفاده می‌کنه. روایت پر از جزئیات خُرد روزمره‌ست، اما همین ریزه‌کاری‌هاست که فضای خفقان‌آور و پوچیِ کار اداری رو زنده می‌کنه.
داستان مثل یک مقدمه‌ برای رمان «سرویس مدل» عمل می‌کنه: در هر دو اثر ربات‌ها، الگوریتم‌ها و هوش‌های مصنوعی جایگزین انسان می‌شن، ولی آنچه باقی می‌مونه، خلأییه که با هیچ منطق ماشینی پر نمی‌شه. همین امتداد تماتیک باعث می‌شه «منابع انسانی» هم مستقل لذت‌بخش باشه و هم دریچه‌ای کنجکاوی‌برانگیز به سوی جهان بزرگ‌تر رمان.
در نهایت، این داستان کوتاه به شکلی بامزه، گزنده و حتی تلخ یادآوری می‌کنه که اتوماسیون و کارایی ممکنه خیلی زود جای همه‌چیز رو بگیره—جز نیاز ما به معنا. برای من تجربه‌ای کوتاه اما ماندگار بود.

[S. ≽^•⩊•^≼ I'm not here yet · Rating 4 out of 5]

You are our human. You are our resource. I think this can also have more scary points. Such as you are our tools and you are our slave... and I completely agree that managing director is really an unacceptable inefficiency who can't even use tools... anyway, no replacement needed

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a chilling, and probably all too accurate look at the near future of an AI dominated society where human labor becomes something of an antiquated notion.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short story, emphasis on "short". It's a clever little story with a twist at the end.

There's this trainee employee of a huge company and he works in the HR dept. But suddenly his boss has been let go and he has been made the head of Human Resources. His initial duties are to fire people. Not a pleasant duty but he perseveres until he looks around and realizes that he's the only human in his dept. All the other jobs are done by AI robots with "human facing" so they look sort of like humans and less like robots. He asks questions and is rebuffed. He wants to know what's going on.

OK, my thing is, why doesn't the guy just show up, watch cat videos on YouTube all day, get paid and go home and do whatever he wants. It's a cake job! I'd switch places with him in a heartbeat and I wouldn't ask questions. Easy money.

Well it was a fun story, although short, and I liked the ending, though I don't think the character did.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars

"Set years before Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model, the newly-promoted head of Human Resources for a multinational conglomerate navigates their new role in a world where humans are increasingly redundant" and being replaced by AI/robots. Twisty ending, but ultimately depressing story.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

In case you ever wondered what the term “human resources” actually means.

Read it for free on Reactor (formerly Tor)’s website: https://reactormag.com/human-resource...

[S.A Reidman · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're about to become a society chock full of Tim Stocks - even his name, "stock", human stock.

Tim to Selma the Human-Facing AI: Why am I still here, Why am I the only one?
Selma, human-sounding entity in human approximation form to human Tim: What is the point of us without you? You are our resource. You are our human.

I've been in a state of mild everything, mildly entertained, mildly inspired, mildly curious and I guess it's reflected in how I experience books. This year I've hardly dished out a 4 for shorts -maybe because I'm always left with a hankering for something more, of wanting to grab the story by its spine and get to the marrow of it, more especially if it is a really damn fine short. This was the perfect appetizer to Service Model. It was unbearably real, and it is mind-numbingly prescient.

You know when you're standing on the pier and you can see the waves just up ahead and it looks like the beginnings of a storm but it's all sunshine up above so you stand there and then all of a sudden you're underwater fighting for your life wondering how that happened so fast? - Yeah, swept up by the AI wave in real time and we're huddle at the pier looking up in wonder and fear.

Next up, Service Model.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Formally, this short story is a prequel to Hugo-nominated Service Model novel. However, it can be read alone. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for July 2025 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.

This is a witty satire of replacing people with robots, told from point of view of an HR manager. It starts with him firing other employees and ending with him the only human in the firm, for he is Human Resources and only HR can fire others but he is alone and cannot fire himself. I think this story is award-worthy.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://reactormag.com/human-resource...

[Icy-Cobwebs-In-Space]

So excellent!

[Poiboy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A boring short story feeding the now well-beaten trend of “AI is bad” propaganda in fiction. Adrian needs to learn that the ‘show, don’t tell’ model of writing is still better. This had a lot of ‘tell’ and too much disconnected ‘show’. 2 stars was being generous.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim Stock is the HR manager at Holring and Baselard, who is finding it ever harder to inform his human colleagues of their redundancy as they are replaced by robots and AI.

Quite a chilling little tale from Tchaikovsky. I can see this becoming a classic SF short story in the same vein as "The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice scary story

I found the idea in this story terrifying. The robots are all that is left with just one human.
It is a bleak idea that human have become redundant to the company and are no longer needed. Let's hope this stays science fiction.

[Angel Journey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and satisfying

The last page was great! A quick but enjoyable ride. My first sci fi short story but I'm hungry for more.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written before his novel 'Service Model', 'Human Resources' imho is a very engaging story about the significance of being human within a robotic dominated society.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooo dang, this is definitely a possible future, very well done Adrian. I cannot get over how well AT does short stories/novellas. His are almost the only stories I read and think - ya, that wasn't missing anything. He packs a punch in such a small space! This may be upgraded to 5 stars as I sit with it.

The description of the conference is insane and this description has stuck in my memory: "The main upshot of that was that the AGMs went very smoothly, with robots explaining to other robots, in humanlike ways, the robot things they had been doing. So that those other robots could deconstruct that information, turn it back into robot data, and then reform it into human terms when they reported to their own masters. It was, Stock was assured, all very efficient."

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly

[David Blaylock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suggest an alternate name for this story: Human Resource

[Elden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good short story, almost scary in how I feel this is how the future will be going. So much that I want to label this not just science fiction but as a horror story.

[River · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

[Lachlan Finlayson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set years before Adrian Tchaikovsky's Service Model, the newly-promoted head of Human Resources for a multinational conglomerate navigates their new role in a world where humans are increasingly redundant. (From the publishers description)

Not really a prequel, perhaps a short novella or maybe just an extra chapter, a prologue, setting the scene for what comes later in Mr Tchaikovsky’s recent novel ‘Service Model’. A quick read of some 20 pages or so. For anyone who enjoyed ‘Service Model’ or other Adrian Tchaikovsky Science Fiction books, this is a most welcome bonus

I love these extra bits and pieces that authors sometimes make available. For example Sue Burke kindly provided some edits and other material that didn’t quite fit into her novel, Semiosis. Fanboys (and girls !) appreciate these extra additions to much loved books.

The protagonist of Human Resources is Tim Stock, who works in HR, and is “letting staff go…”. After talking with one targeted young woman:

“…he felt he should be cheering her on as she made this interview as difficult as possible for the company…”

And then in his response to the young woman:

“I want to speak to someone,” she said. “You are,” he pointed out, “speaking to someone.”

Mr Tchaikovsky’s phrasing is concise, eloquent and at times quietly amusing.

Tim, our protagonist, reflects on her push-back.

“…the situation would have to be tolerated whether it was tolerable or not.”

And he begins to wonder about those who run this world of corporate business.

“…taking their big signing bonuses and then, shortly after, their golden handshakes, when it turned out that the invaluable industry experience the shareholders had been so won-over by was just flimflam…”

He observes…

“One reason it was doing fine is that it had shed a lot of expensive human beings recently, in exchange for a variety of AI systems that could see the patterns of the stock market in both broader scope and finer detail and make far more informed decisions on what to buy, sell and invest in for the maximum return…”

This is a story that will resonate with anyone who has experienced corporate HR; the hiring, firing and (sigh…) the compulsory on-line training. And given all the hoopla with AI in recent years, a story that is perhaps going to resonate even more with some. Maybe more than a resonance ; possible an extremely loud and very close crash, bang , wallop to those quietly-quitting their jobs or just keeping their heads down and hoping for the best.

Amongst the Science Fiction and humour, Mr Tchaikovsky seems to be offering a harbinger of things to come; to namedrop a character from Mr Tchaikovsky’s fine Architect series of novels.

This is wonderfully prose. So very observant. A fine short story. A format I should embrace more.

Our Tim, and I expect many readers will relate to him, wonders, when talking to the Managing Director’s secretary…

“… if that was deeply offensive to a robot and then knowing that nothing ever could be.”

What happens when companies and buildings empty out of staff but still somehow continue as successful, thriving entities for owners and stockholders ?

Buy this book; a modest price for 20 minutes of thought-provoking pleasure. A great little taster of the world of Mr Tchaikovsky for the uninitiated. The future, the ominous signs, but also the humanity and humour.

Give it to your friends, family and those close to you who still read books. Even those who don’t ! They will enjoy it. It may even change their views on Science Fiction.

[Alex Sarll]

In between his usual 3-4 novels a year, plus occasional comics, games &c, Adrian Tchaikovsky has clearly been feeling the time on his hands, as I've been noticing more short fiction from him too. This is a brief prequel to last year's Service Model, and in worldbuilding terms it suffers from one of the standard prequel problems: Service Model was very much 'if this goes on' science fiction, a satire on bureaucratic inertia, perverse incentives, capitalism and AI – and it was a very good one, but creating a plausible midpoint between our own confidently hallucinating LLMs and the novel's android butler risks exposing the cracks in the edifice. Still, this doesn't stick around long enough for that to become too much of a problem, and by way of showing us the soul-crushing life of the last human in HR, it acts as a deployment mechanism for some horribly perceptive lines: "Since then a revolving door of managing directors had come and gone, taking their big signing bonuses and then, shortly after, their golden handshakes, when it turned out that the invaluable industry experience the shareholders had been so won-over by was just flimflam and membership of the right golf clubs." Or "the great web of inter-robot chatter which bound the world together, and atop which a thin layer of humanity floated like scum on a pond". All of which is very cathartic, even as it recalls that Peter Cook line about those wonderful Weimar cabarets that did so much to prevent the rise of the Nazis.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have Tchaikovsky's novel "Service Model" on my TBR-pile, but apparently he also wrote a sort of prequel that is set many years before "Service Model". This short story is freely available at reactormag.com.

A "short" story indeed, nothing really happening, except lay-offs. By a human being. While the rest of the company... consists of AI and robots. When HR or Human Resources really are about "human" resources.

Nothing fancy, yet very much food for thought regarding our current society - and what the future may or may not bring - in terms of workforce, viable work, ... for humans, as AI will become more and more prominent in various industries.

----------

Related works I've read earlier:
* Hypermondes: Robots (Hypermondes, #1) (review)
* Travailler encore ? (review)
* Ariel Kyrou - Dans les imaginaires du futur (review)

[Arimi Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story poses a very much needed question: What is HR? And where will we stop with ai? I found it horrifying to listen to and hear how things changed within the story, but despite it being considered dystopian, with the way that social media and Chat GPT and other artificial intelligence is slowly taking over our lives and creativity, I think this short story is very telling on what future we could be doomed realistically to face if we don't stop with all the automated stuff we have been struggling with recently.

Without people- there is no humanity.

[Thia Reads A Lot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story "prologue" to Service Model
3*

Summary: Tim Stock was appointed head of HR. He has to fire people since he is the only one left in his department. He is still in training, and mentions things to a digital trainer, who reports back on him. He goes to a conference, but he is the only human attendee. He goes back, wondering when he will get fired since he is the only human left working for the firm. But the secretary tells him he won't be, because he is the Human Resource.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the not too distant future, a person in Human Resources at a company is given the task of firing people at his firm, as more and more jobs are taken over by robots. Even an HR convention he attends is filled by robots. When he returns to his job, his discovers more redundancies have taken place, and he prepares himself to be fired. Only, in a twist, he discovers there is a reason for him to keep his job.

[Rustybikes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short and to the point, Human Resources paints a grim vision of how things could turn out as we continue to be engulfed by the AI slop that is increasingly common. It's a bleak glimpse into what went on, in just one corner of the world, before the events in Service Model, and doesn't disappoint.

[K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

She just was, a very complex cascade of switches and logical inferences. Made so human he couldn’t mistake her for one, and yet made complex enough that he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t talking to something.

This isn't (just) sci-fi but also a chilling reminder of what our near future could look like.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ostensibly set some years before Service Model, this is a perfect encapsulation of where we are going with all this damnable LLM/"AI" crap that's going on now.

Robots talking to robots, with a token human.

Jeezopete.