03 Dec Saturday Broadcast 26
Key topics:
✔️ ICYMI news, 11/28 – 12/2.
✔️ Forced fun is not fun? Wowee, ya don’t say!
✔️Some candidates will apply to a job they don’t actually want in an effort to get a raise, a promotion, etc. IMHO, if you are commanding everyone to RTO and you’re getting ghosted or your hiring funnel is relatively empty, well, you’re playing yourself.
✔️Layoffs via Zoom were bad enough but now layoffs via text?
✔️We’re told that adult loneliness is at an all-time high and people feel they have difficulty making friends. It seems like they’ve forgotten the old rule: in order to have a friend, you have to BE a friend.
Links I mention in this episode:
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/your-manager-might-admire-musk-6093562/
https://medium.com/@sara_causey/dealing-with-twitter-loyalists-688979bda884
https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/11/18/work-long-hours-at-high-intensity-or-gtfo/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/ai-behind-amazon-recruiter-buyouts-5502516/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/hiring-may-stay-high-despite-downturn-6096434/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/enforced-fun-is-never-fun-5071609/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/snap-orders-staff-to-rto-80-of-week-5073705/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/job-quits-rate-hits-17-month-low-6097938/
https://www.yahoo.com/video/great-remote-mismatch-workers-looking-201735856.html
https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/04/04/when-the-pendulum-swings/
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/02/heres-where-the-jobs-are-for-november-2022-in-one-chart.html
https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/12/02/dwindling-remote-opportunities/
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/job-cuts-at-cnn-gannett-wash-post-6093050/
Need more? Email me: https://causeyconsultingllc.com/contact-causey/
Siren courtesy of Pixabay.
Transcription by Otter.ai. Please forgive any typos!
Hello, Hello, and thanks for tuning in today it is Monday, November 28. feels crazy to be saying that Thanksgiving is over with. There’s a little more than a month left in q4. And let’s face it the way that things have been going, I imagine that most decision makers will not even be around in December. From what I understand a lot of people travel, there was a lot of traffic on the roads, a lot of people in the airports a lot of people traveled for Thanksgiving. Apparently not as many people went shopping. Now the mainstream media is telling us that this was like a record breaking Black Friday, but then you hear from people, boots on the ground, so to speak, saying, um, no. The only place I’ve heard of thus far that was really and truly crowded, and it looked like Black Friday typically looks was someone who was talking about being in a thrift store. And this thrift store was going to run everything half off for Black Friday. And you could not have squeezed another human being into the store or the parking lot. But apparently your regular run in the mill discount stores, the department stores, places that normally would be packed, just weren’t crickets and tumbleweeds. So I’m more inclined to believe people that said, Yeah, I went to the store and there was me and maybe four other people. And that was it. I talked to the cashiers and they said it had been painfully slow. I’m more likely to believe that than I am some hype beast hopium article from the mainstream media telling us that this has just been a blowout Black Friday, and people are doing great, huh? Sure. Of course. I remember seeing an article on CNBC claiming that well, people are not in the stores because they were all shopping online. And then they also mentioned that people were doing the Buy Now pay later in most cases, and I just have to rub my temples because this is not the time in my opinion, to be going into debt or doing Buy now pay later for Christmas gifts. I can’t tell you what to do. But that is definitely not something that would be of high interest to me. I went nowhere on Black Friday. I am still in the process of convalescing trying to get over some of the long term Rhona side effects. If I had a million dollars saved up specifically for Christmas gifts, I couldn’t have gone anywhere. But still, I think most people based on what I’ve seen for the viewership ratings of all of the football that took place Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I think a lot of people traveled to their destination and then hung out at the house or if they were hosting people. They just stayed home. I think a lot of people had the Thanksgiving that we did eating, sleeping, watching football. That was pretty much how it went. And that was absolutely fine. By me, I don’t I’m not interested in pushing and shoving and spending crazy amounts of money. Just a huge no thanks on that. Over on Yahoo Finance Today we find stocks and oil slide Apple sinks as COVID protests across China intensify. US stocks descended Monday as unrest in China over the nation’s restrictive COVID controls weighed on global sentiment, and Wall Street returned from a holiday weekend. Blog five files for bankruptcy as FTX Fallout continues. Crypto just sounds like a giant hot dumpster fire right now. I’ve said before I really, really hope that we don’t get asked as the American taxpayer to bail these crypto companies out but it could so totally happen. Apple stock slides and mid China protests supply chain crunch. Frontier shuts down call centers transitions to digital communications. Could we start to see more of that happening? Of course we could could more things become automated or robotic? Yes, they could. There’s a story that hit the news. I think maybe first it was in the New York Post. over the holiday weekend, United furniture industries laid off all 2700 workers while they were sleeping. Evidently they woke up to a text message saying your services are no longer needed. I’ll drop a link to the article so you can see it for yourself. It features a picture of one of the employees holding up the text that they received and exactly what it said and this is one of the reasons why I tell you all the time. Be naive at your own risk. In my opinion, naivete is coming at too high of a price. Assuming whoa I’m gonna look around You’re everything seems fine another day in paradise. I guess we’re probably all right. Be very careful of normalcy bias because anybody can be laid off. Anybody can be let go. Really, in a climate like this, I would say just about any company could go under, you know, unless and until we get asked to bail them out with our taxpayer dollars, but that’s a whole nother topic. On the side panel for LinkedIn, we find Kryptos block fie files for bankruptcy. Banks want you to trust Zell AI behind amazon, recruiter buyouts question mark. Phone prices may start falling soon. Hmm, yeah, I think probably so. Hiring may stay high despite downturn. Oh, there’s that hopium man, there’s that pie in the sky in the sweet by and by, again, you know, when I’m saying specialty positions, niche roles, areas where you can’t just pull someone in off the street and ask them to do a job. Yes, companies are still hiring for niche positions. And if something is absolutely mission critical to the organization, we can’t be without an accountant or we can’t be without this particular engineer. We can’t be without a CFO. Yes. Companies are still hiring for these INTERCAL positions. But are huge numbers of companies still trying to go out and cast a wide net the way that they did during the Great resignation? No, not in my observation. They are not your manager might admire Musk yet again, this should be a surprise to no one. I have talked about this multiple times on various platforms your manager might admire Musk Yeah, probably read a little bit from this now. Elon Musk could be your managers anger translator has the billionaire CEO of Twitter showcases his Hard Core expectations, cutting staff and sending more running for the hills. Some executives are expressing their admiration rights, the Wall Street Journal. They’re tired of all the whining from their employees over flexibility and work life balance and like musk want maximum effort from their staff. While most leaders are either reluctant to state these desires explicitly, or don’t have the wealth and power to back them up. Many see Musk as a welcome outlet. Musk’s leadership style isn’t unique to his role at Twitter. He’s employed similar tactics like sudden layoffs, alluding to bankruptcy and touting hard core work at his other companies Tesla and SpaceX and quote. Yeah, so for me, this is definitely a no Sherlock kind of moment. On medium back on November 20, I published the article dealing with Twitter loyalists, and one of the points that I make there is I don’t feel like this kind of mainstream media narrative that we’re getting. Now Oh, they’re really sticking it to Elon, he’s really going to learn a lesson from this. I don’t believe that for 10 seconds. I will read from my medium article now. I think even if only a handful of people are left at Twitter when the dust settles, if they are the so labeled loyalists, who have a strong commitment to musk and the organization, then Elon is getting what he truly wants. And let me give you a little secret here. I believe that kind of fealty is what most CEOs in this country actually want to told you. Yep, called that when longtime before old LinkedIn jumped on the bandwagon. On November 18. I also on my public blog, posted work long hours at high intensity or GTFO. There’s a great little tick tock there from Max, the very good boy where he sort of satirizes the idea of idolizing billionaires, which I think is great. But I also in the last line of that blog post I wrote, I can’t help but notice these are all dudes who want to fanboy out about must. I don’t get the appeal of it, but I think we will see more of these hard lines drawn by companies. Yet again, bury your head in the sand at your own risk. Be naive at your own risk. I feel like these giant tech guru ce o guys are really paving the way for others to do the same thing. It may seem an odd comparison, but stick with me here. You’re not seen in The Devil Wears Prada when Andy laughs about the different belts because she can’t tell the difference which most people frankly couldn’t in the two belts. Oh, this is not Lapis. It’s saruni So Miranda Priestly like wigs out, totally gives her a tongue lashing about the fashion industry. But the point she makes is okay, Oscar de la Renta showed this first and then Yves Saint Laurent did a line on it. Well, then it trickled down to the department stores. And then it trickled down to the department to the discount stores. And then it went to the bargain basement stores. And so the reason why you’re wearing the lumpy blue sweater you have on is because it was already hand selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff. And then of course, Andrea looks like she’s about to die right there on the spot. I think it’s the same basic principle, in the same way that these fashion trends trickled down. Poop rolls downhill in the same way that Miranda Priestly is explaining it to Andy, I think the same thing is happening with what these tech oligarchs are doing within their companies. They are emboldening other employers, whether they have as much money or not is really irrelevant. They’re empowering other employers to follow suit. Well, we’re really kind of over remote work. We’re really kind of done with hybrid, we just want everybody back button seat full time. And if you don’t like it, you can self select out. If you don’t think that that’s coming to accompany me or you. I don’t know where you’re at and I don’t know where you’ve been. If we click on AI behind amazon recruiter buyouts, we find new artificial intelligence tech could be behind Amazon’s decision last week to extend buyout offers to hundreds of recruiters recode reports. Signing a confidential internal document it says the tech giant has worked for more than a year on AI to replace recruiter tasks for some corporate and warehouse positions. The AI dubbed automated applicant evaluation looks for resumes with similarities to those of current high performing staff. Amazon pulled an AI recruiting tool in 2018 because of a bias against women. The internal document says the new tech appears to guard against gender and racial bias. I’m sure but what did I just say earlier? automation, robotics coming to a place near you. Absolute freakin loosely. Now not one of these complete dystopian types that says everything is going to be outsourced or everything is going to be automated. I try to stay away from everyone. No one always never in the true extremes. But I think we do have to be careful. regardless of what industry we’re in, of getting into that normalcy bias or being like the dog in the room that’s on fire. This is fine. Everything’s fine. I mean, for me, being involved in staffing and recruiting, this is something important for me to keep my eye on, you know, how are these companies going to fare trying to use robotics? To me? It’s laughable. Because when you subtract the human element, yes, you may be subtracting some negative things that you don’t want, but you’re subtracting the positive things to and what are you really getting in return? It’ll be interesting to see how that question plays out. Now, if we click on this great hopium hiring may stay high despite downturn, we find despite recent layoffs and fears of an economic downturn, many companies are still actively hiring and trying to retain their employees. This job market riddle says Bloomberg comes as companies hoard talent in case a recession leads to labor shortages and shrinking talent pools, problems many industries faced at the start of the pandemic, while global unemployment is still likely to rise over the next two years, you’ll think payrolls will mostly stay healthy as companies try to attract and retain talent in anticipation of stronger economic conditions. Then there’s a little kind of, by the way, bullet point down here. And it says white collar workers are most likely to experience layoffs in the coming months. And the pan as the pandemic led to over hiring in industries like tech, finance, banking, and real estate. Told you it may very well be that blue collar and Gen labor workers don’t see that much of an impact. I could be wrong about that. But they may be fairly insulated from this, this could very well be a white collar recession of white collar job market from hell. In this again, we’re just kind of going to have to kind of sit on the sidelines and see exactly how it plays out. In the meantime, as I’ve said many times before, Do not bury your head in the sand and do not be naive. Have you roughed out that job loss survival plan yet? Have you thought about the plan B C, D E F in the in a worst case scenario in case of emergency break? Last, do you know what you would do? Today is Tuesday, November 29. Over on CNBC we have headlines today such as Tesla’s still dominant, but its US market share is eroding as cheaper EVs arrive. s&p 500 and NASDAQ closed lower for third day as investors look to Fed Chair Powell speech. So what will that be like? AMC network plans significant layoffs as CEO steps down after less than three months. I really believe that you owe it to yourself, if you are working for someone else, to keep a finger on the pulse as best as you can of what’s going on what’s going on within the company that you’re working for, and what’s going on within your industry in general. Believe me, I know, sometimes we’re just hanging on by the skin of our teeth. We’re trying to survive one day at a time we’re busy. The family needs this, the kids want that we’re thinking about our own personal life, we’re not really thinking about the overall health of the industry or the overall health of the business that we’re working in. But you know, I’ve said many times, I feel like burying your head in the sand, or trying to be naive is coming at too high of a price. And if you’ve noticed a lot of people in upper management getting fired, getting replaced jumping ship, that’s typically not a good sign. Now, it doesn’t always mean that layoffs are imminent, it doesn’t always mean that the company is about to completely shut down. But generally speaking is not a great sign. If you see people leaving if you see people getting fired very fast, especially in upper management or the C suite, it typically it’s just not a good sign. Blog fi lawyer tells bankruptcy court that the priority is to maximize client recoveries. Wow, what an absolute hot mess is crypto. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find AMC lays off as CEO steps down in forced fun is never fun. Well, no Sherlock will click on that in a minute. Snap orders staff to RTO 80% of the week. Yeah, told you this whole hybrid hell of half measures hybrid, make no mistake about it, in my opinion, is a stepping stone. I feel like the companies that are implementing that it’s sort of like okay, we’ll go ahead, kind of go along to get along, we’ll play the game that we still care about remote work, but what we really want is for everybody to be back button seat, Monday through Friday, just like pre COVID. I that’s what I see coming. I hope that I’m wrong. I really do. Because to be honest with you from a staffing and recruiting perspective, speaking selfishly, it is so much easier and so much better to try to recruit and or do staffing and HR related projects for companies that freaking get it. Companies that still have a commitment to remote work. They’re committed to work from anywhere. They really, truly want to get the best people for the jobs, and they’re not worried about are those people in Macon, Georgia? Are they in New York? Are they in Sacramento, we don’t really care where they’re at. We will allow people to work from anywhere, as long as they’re getting the job done. Those types of companies are 10 bazillion million times easier to recruit for, you really have your pick of who you want to submit as a potential candidate to clients like that. Whereas the people that are stuck on hell of half measures hybrid, or they want everybody back full time. And I have a rather arrogant, in my opinion attitude about it of like, well, if Elon can do it, we can do it. If he can make this edict that you need to come on back, because it’s just not innovative to be remote. Well, we should be able to do that to now we’re not even worth a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of any of his company. So we don’t have anywhere near the amount of quote star power and notoriety that he does. But dammit, we feel like we should command the peons to come on back and then they wonder why they have no takers. They wonder why their hiring funnel is relatively empty, except for people who ghost them. Here’s a little tidbit of information. Sometimes people will put their name in a hat for a job, they will direct apply. I’m not talking about people that necessarily go through a staffing agency, although there are plenty of people that are more than willing to waste a staffing agencies time trust and believe. But there are people that will put their own name in the hat for a job and they have absolutely no intention whatsoever of taking that job. They’re trying to get a raise. They’re trying to get a promotion. They’re essentially going to use an offer or maybe not even an offer maybe just hey, these companies want to talk to me look at how hot I am right now. In an F worked to get a pay bump, or in an effort to get a promotion, these things happen. So it’s like, it’s very easy to use a company that wants RTO. They want hybrid, because really, nobody else freakin wants that right now. So it’s easy for candidates to come along and put a name in the hat knowing full well, they’re not ever going to work at that company, but they’re just hoping to get an offer, or at least enough interest that they can go to their boss and saying, Well, I really want to stay here. But if you don’t give me a pay bump, or you don’t give me an extra benefit, or you don’t give me whatever, then then I’ll go ahead and leave. But really, truth be told they have no desire in going to that place. And to me, it’s kind of like, well, you’re playing yourself. You know, if if a smi tells you. Most people don’t want to be back button seen in the office full time, and you want to bury your head in the sand and act like no, they should come on back because we command it. You’re playing yourself in my opinion. On a related note, gaslighting is the word of the year. Well, how appropriate. I’ll actually be publishing an episode on Thursday called Lynnie. The liar and it unfortunately is about the reality that we sometimes have to deal with that clients lie. Sometimes clients gaslight, I think back to Dr. House saying everyone lies should always run the test because in reality, everyone lies. Well. The thing of it is we may think that in our personal life, we would run into individuals that choose to lie and gaslight. But it happens in the business world to Iger lays out plans for Disney Netflix’s theater strategy pays off. That’s interesting because I heard another story saying that it actually had not that they were pulling the movies out of theaters too fast and they weren’t making as much revenue as they should be. I guess it all depends on which story you’re reading. cryptos block fi files for bankruptcy. Houston, boil water notice ends. So when we click on enforced fun is never fun. Of course, I will be writing about this as well. On the blog this week, we find while after work drinks can provide some bonding time between colleagues. enforced fun with your team can feel a little well forced, especially if excessive drinking is considered a large part of that fun. That’s what one Frenchman argued in court after allegedly being fired for refusing to take part in his company’s fun activities, which I’m sure we’re not freaking fun at all. And he’s not alone. Around 43% of working adults who drink say there’s too much pressure to drink when socializing with colleagues, says the Huffington Post citing research from drink aware, and even those who don’t drink may simply want a break. US workers work an average of 1767 hours per year, after all. Yeah, this is another place where I feel like the Europeans have it right in terms of you go to work and you work. And then you go home. You have other friends. You spend time with your family, you have hobbies, but there isn’t this sense of pressure, to socialize and to be all chums, the whimsy pals the Wowsie with your co workers. I have always thought that that was so bizarre. It’s like we’re here to do a job. We’re not here to be BFFs with everybody. Do you use the phrase desert Come on man. When we click on SNAP order staff to RTO 80% of week we find following in the footsteps of apple and Twitter snap is the latest tech company to mandate employees return to the office at least four days a week. Told you I told you there would be a creep two days then three then four then just come back permanent. The move by the social media platform goes into effect at the end of February reports Bloomberg citing an internal memo with CEO Evan Spiegel stating spending more time to gather in person will help us achieve our full potential All right on the same day that they’re talking about the Frenchman who won a lawsuit about forced fun bullcrap activities. You can’t make it up. But you know he was in France Nobrow pajama live America you know here we are in, in America and it’s a different situation. Spending more time together in person will help us to achieve our full potential. Yeah, talk me do my Oh, I don’t think so. Snap let go of 20% of it staffers in August after seeing slow growth results in its last quarter. I’m sure that didn’t have a damn thing to do with not having the magic of being together in person. The RTO mandate will be enforced for employees isn’t all 30 of snaps global offices? Wow, wow, glad I don’t work for them. Oh my god and then for staffing and recruiting perspective, can you imagine having to try to recruit in that situation? That would be a tough sell? Well, no, you know, come Come February, you’re gonna be back. But in seat four days a week, you’ll get your one little treat day to work from home like a good little puppy. But the rest of the time, you’re gonna have to be there in the cube farm. No, thanks. Today, it is Wednesday, November 30. I’m tempted to remind you that there’s one month left and q4 mean technically that’s true, but realistically, probably not. Depending upon what industry you’re in, you may already be checked out. I’m starting to see the emails from the C suites. And the executives. I’ll be out of office for the entire month of December. I guess it’s good to be at the top. I will be in the office for most of December. But I will tell you having this experience with my health has definitely brought it home to me that you have to build in some opportunities for rest and relaxation. You also have to build in opportunities to truly decompress, where you’re not out of the office when going. But really you’re still attached to your cell phone, you’re still reading emails and getting stressed out over things, but to really and truly walk away from it for some period of time and have that opportunity to decompress. It is so important. Over on CNBC, the Dow has been up and down, depending upon what time of the day, at one point, it was down 100 points and that was being blamed on Powell. Now it’s up 300 points. And that’s being blamed on Powell. So who knows. I mean, it’s almost like who even cares? Is it going to impact your bottom line very much today? Probably not. Fed Chair Powell says smaller interest rate hikes could start in December, long COVID could be the next public health disaster with a $3.7 trillion dollar economic impact. Well, there’s a headline I’m inclined to believe because I’ve been living that experience. I have never had an illness before that just lingered like that, where you could get over the bulk of the illness, you could be cleared for take off again, but yet still have these lingering and residual complications. It it is brutal. It really truly is. So for me, people that are pushing for RTO. And they’re acting like well, if you’re still scared of that, there’s something wrong with you. That’s a bad karma on your part, if you ask me. getting promoted too quickly could set you up for failure. All right. Well, there’s there’s some good news. Mortgage rates fall for third straight week, but demand still drops further. Well, yes, who has any money? That’s the thing. You’re you’re hearing more and more horror stories now, of people who bought a house, and it’s falling apart. There’s some news articles that have come out where people are showing the videos and the photographs literally, of their houses brand new construction falling apart. People getting in and realizing they bought a poopoo house that needed a ton of repairs that they can’t afford. people buying a place that’s far away from the office thinking that work from anywhere was going to last forever, and they’re being called back and they don’t know what to do now. People getting laid off in some cases, both individuals in the household that are earners, are being laid off at the same time. It’s it’s tough out there. So who could be surprised what person in their right mind could be surprised that even though the rates are dropping, demand is dropping to Hello, let’s wake up to reality. I saw a video earlier I have not watched it. So I can’t really speak to the accuracy of it. But based on the title, the argument that was made in the video was that we’re headed for deflation. We’re about to see prices coming down. Because demand is going down. People just don’t have the money. No, they don’t want to go to these Black Friday sales. They don’t want to do the cyber week sales. They just they’re tapped out they don’t have any money. And nobody wants to go buy a poopoo overpriced house right now for half a million dollars a house that would normally be 200k that some greedy idiot seller is still trying to milk and use as an ATM. A lot of people are just saying no to that mean, I can’t imagine how it would be otherwise. Well, you still have realtors and brokers trying to blow smoke up your rear end and tell you that the market is great. Of course you will. I had another one that I hadn’t spoken to in months that called me out of nowhere just the other day and was like Hey, hey, whoa, buddy, old pal. How you doing out there? Is there anything you might want to go look at? What are you thinking about the market? And I’m like, Are you nuts? Lose my number. I didn’t say that, of course. But I thought it. We also find crypto exchange Kraken lays off 1100 employees. Mehta is downsizing at New York location it opened in 2019. You don’t have to say I think that companies that will continue with remote work or work from anywhere policies. And I hate to sound cynical here, but I’m just being real with you. I think some of them will fall into the category of we can’t afford corporate real estate, we may as well, it’s almost like conceding, because of financial reasons, we may as well allow the peons to continue working from home because we don’t really have the money to buy corporate real estate and force them into a location where we can monitor them in person. That’s what I think is going to happen. Again, I know that sounds cynical, but I’m on the front lines of this and it is just amazing to me. I feel like Gordon Ramsay sometimes going into these insane Oh, restaurants, where they want to argue with him, you know, or they want to continue trying to defend poor business practices. We can also add in Jon Taffer. On Bar Rescue, you’re going into a place where there’s a dead mouse in the fryer going into a place and it looks like the kitchen. And the bar top haven’t been cleaned since 1970. But they want to argue and get defensive. Well, I mean, you know, it’s not that bad has worked for us all this time. And you’re like, Dude, your place is freaking disgusting. The same thing is shaping up in the job market right now, based on my experiences. You have some hiring managers that are just complete and utter hard heads. Some of them have been emboldened. Remember, I told you that was going to happen. Some of them have been emboldened by watching people like Zuck and Lord Elon saying well mean if you want to self select out the door, that’s fine. If you feel like our standards are too high, or our policies don’t really mesh with what you want in a workplace and you can just go ahead and mosey on out that door. That’s fine with us that that combined with Lord Elon just being a hardliner and saying you come on back or it’s your job, minimum, you’re going to be here 40 hours a week. That’s that’s just standard operating procedure at my company’s other hiring managers are following suit now, even though they don’t have anywhere near the amount of money as like Twitter, or Tesla or meta, that’s beside the point. They’re looking around. They’re fanboying out at these people like Zuckerberg and Lauren Ilan, and they’re thinking, well, we should do the same thing. We want the peons back, we want the corporate forced fun, we want everybody in the conference room, we want to go back to 2019 Dammit. And if you try to make the case to them, you bring all of the evidence forward, including news articles and statistics, they will turn a blind eye to it. Because they have already made up their mind. They don’t care about what the facts are. They just want you to do what they’re telling you to do. So for their freelancers, their advisors, their consultants, they have the same type of attitude, right in the same way that they want to tell their employees sit down, shut up, get back in the cube farm and do what you’re told. They want to do the same thing to other people trying to help them other people trying to guide them trying to educate them about what’s actually going on in the market. I can’t imagine that that will not get worse and more intense. As we go further into this economic poopoo storm. I don’t see any way around it. So as I said, in my mind, my prognostication is that a lot of the companies that will stick with remote and work from anywhere policies, through 2023 are going to be companies that either don’t have any corporate real estate to speak of. They lose it due to financial reasons. I heard a statistic the other day I need to look it up and verify it. But I heard a statistic the other day that 41% of small business owners are having difficulty paying their rent. So if they lose corporate real estate, or they let their corporate real estate go, they sell it and say screw it, it’s not worth the expense anymore. I can 100% see those individuals saying let’s just let people work from home. It’s easier. It’s not that complicated. They’ve been doing it since early 2020. Let’s just leave well enough alone. I can see that. But if a company has gone But real estate and or they’re able to pick up an office building on the cheap as we go further into the real estate crisis that’s coming. They’re going to tell every Monday to come on back. Don’t believe me just watch. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn news, we find layoffs begin at CNN. Delta get stricter on lounge access DoorDash lays off 1250 workers. Yeah, remember those economists that assured us that mass layoffs were not coming in q4? Huh? I’m really glad I didn’t listen to them. Job quits rate. It’s 17 month low. Yes. I will talk about that momentarily. companies embrace shorter work week. This is another trend that we could see shaping up. It could very well be will will allow you will allow you to have a three day weekend. You can be off Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Saturday, Sunday, Monday, as long as you’re willing to come in the office. Now there are some people, some companies anyway that prefer to have employees working for 10s. That’s not at all unheard of. But I’m sure it will be repackaged and repurpose. Like it’s something brand new that nobody’s ever done before. And meanwhile, yes, it hasn’t been done before. So when we click on job quits rate hits 17 month low we find job openings dropped in October reversing gains of the prior month. Imagine that, as demand for workers appeared to slow amid rising interest rates. The number of available positions in the US fell to 10 point 3 million from 10 point 7 million in September. According to the Labor Department’s job openings and labor and labor turnover survey aka the jolts report. That’s a lot easier to say that long name. The quits rate also fell to the lowest level in 17 months 2.6% as fewer Americans voluntarily left their jobs. The report suggests that recent layoff announcements together with a campaign by the Federal Reserve to cool demand are starting to slow the labor market churn Do you think private sector payrolls Rose 127,000 In November, the smallest gain since January 2021. According to data from ADP Research Institute, and wage growth slowed for a second month and quote, I’ll tell you all I’m trying to explain that, to some people is insists like the meme of the guy talking to a brick wall. They just they don’t get it. They they want to believe that if they call a candidate on the phone, that candidate is just supposed to turn cartwheels. They’re supposed to pop off silly string and streamers and just be like, Oh my god, Mr. Hiring manager, I’m so happy to hear from you. I cannot believe that you graced me with your presence. People are not doing that. I have tried. Sometimes this is an area where I feel like Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill, I have tried to explain to certain individuals look, the great resignation is over for white collar knowledge workers. Could it still be going on and fast food, retail gin labor, of course, to as ever this, those are areas that typically do have a higher churn and burn rate of people getting in and getting out and job hopping. It’s nothing new. With that being said, is it still going on in so called so labeled white collar knowledge work? No. And it’s been over with for quite some time. Now. One of the consequences of this is that during the Great resignation during the FOMO and the YOLO, and that same intensity, that fever pitch that we saw on the job market that mirrored the housing market. Yes, people were Hey, yeah, I’ll talk Sure. Absolutely no problem. Yeah, I’m keeping my options open. Why not? Doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt to browse, it doesn’t hurt to have a conversation. It’s different now. Yes, there are people who are applying for jobs proactively. Some of them are trying to hedge their bets against a layoff, or potential job loss, potentially company closing. They’re trying to already have some oars in the water just in case. There are also people who are using potential job offers or potential interest even from a company as leverage at their current employer. They don’t really want to leave. They’re just doing it because they’re hoping to use it as leverage to get a pay, raise a promotion, et cetera. But in terms of all of these things, People being so open and so willing to get on the phone or to respond to an email like we saw during the Great resignation? No. New No, no, no, no. Plus, on top of that, we’re in q4, a lot of people have already mapped out what they’re going to do for the holidays, they’ve already put in their vacation request. They’re not worried about trying to make a job change in the middle of all this. We are in that queue for holiday inertia. That’s what I’ve called it for years holiday inertia, because it is so difficult to get people off of high center this time of the year, during the Great resignation. No, it was not, it was remarkably easy, even during the holiday season. I’ve said before I was busy all of 2021. And even though I cannot explain it to you logically, it was like January 1 of this year, a door slam shut. And all of a sudden the momentum and the gains just all it was like watching the wind come out of the sails of a sailboat and the boat just sort of sitting there in the water, gently rocking back and forth. on anything much going on. That’s how it was. And the shift was palpable. For me, I could feel it, I could feel it physically, I could feel it spiritually. And mentally, it was like, Oh, I think that we may be going into a change in priorities, a change in time, a change in attitude. And that has born out to be correct. And so I’m glad that I listened to my gut instincts. And I cut back on spending. And I started to be really conscientious of what I was doing both in my business and in my personal life. Very, very glad. Because we are in a different set of circumstances. This is another reason why I say if you’re waiting to be officially told, or you’re waiting for some talking head in the media to announce something to you, in my opinion, you’ve waited too late. I was perceiving this change at the beginning of the year. So here we are the year is almost over with before you’re finally seeing an official news article saying oh, hey, seems like fewer people are quitting seems like maybe that great resignation is over with and I’m out here like you think it’s been over with. In my mind, I would so much rather be ahead of the curve. I would not want to get blindsided or smacked upside the head with information and regret it later. On an unrelated but still important note, I’ve been noticing some drama playing out over the past few days within the prepper community. And I have my reasons for bringing it up, which I will get to I’m gonna have to be necessarily vague because I do not personally know the people that are involved in this maelstrom of trouble. And I do not underline it bow tie, but I do not want to get involved in the middle of it. Now I’m going to name any names. And I’m also not gonna get into the reason why apparently, they are at one another. But from the outside looking in, it’s like you have these warring factions. Some people support this person, while other people support that person. And we’re gonna snipe at each other. And we’re going to have some battle to decide who’s the most moral and who’s on the best high ground in this situation. And it’s like, first of all, what? And secondly, I have to wonder at the risk of sounding very cynical indeed. Is this whole battle staged? Because we know that Hollywood does that. We know that in Hollywood, there’s the old saying even bad publicity is good publicity. There’s all kinds of stories of tabloid drama being fabricated, and oh, this actress hates that one. And this guy is dating this one’s ex and it not even being true. They’re being fake marriages, they’re being fake stories. So do I think that people on social media are above manufacturing drama to get likes, views and comments? No, of course I don’t. I think that that happens too. Is that what’s happening in this particular scenario? I have no idea. And frankly, I don’t care. The reason why I’m bringing this up is because we’re bombarded with stories about adult loneliness, how difficult it is for adults to find and then maintain a friendship with other adults. For some reason, it appears to be so easy when we’re school kids. But then once we go into adulthood, it seems to be very difficult. And there are stories of people crying, saying I have no friends. I don’t even know where I would begin to look for a friend. Now to me, that’s it’s difficult to wrap my mind around because as I’ve said before, it’s weird that I as a crusty old introvert, who is frankly antisocial in a lot of situations, I am not the kind of introvert that goes around on freakin apology tour for who I am. Let’s let’s be really clear about that. I don’t like this shaming of introverts where it’s like, you feel that you have to say, Yes, I’m an introvert. So I need solitude, I need alone time. But I’m not antisocial. I don’t dislike people. I just, you know, I just love the world. I want to heal the world. They love everyone. And so we start getting into like toxic positivity and toxic gratitude. No F that. There are people I like and I care about. And there are people I don’t like, and I don’t care about and I’m just being real with you. Hello, welcome to the human experience. I remember my friend Scott telling me about his son in law. And he was talking about how this guy is really outgoing and gregarious, very extroverted, most definitely the type of person who draws energy from large gatherings, large groups of people could talk somebody’s ear off all night long. So he felt that he was like custom built for a sales career. When he graduated from college, he didn’t have any difficulty landing a sales job. And after about a week at said, sales job, Scott had asked him well, how’s it going? How are you liking? It seems like it would be the perfect thing for you to do is as a self proclaimed people person. And he said, The guy looked really bedraggled and tired and worn out. And he said, You know, I’ve come to the conclusion that I love people. But I also really hate them too. And Scott and I both when he relayed that line to me, we just oh, God, we both laughed. And I’m like, yeah, for one thing, working in any kind of sales job will absolutely take the utter piss out of you. And there will be times when you’re like, Man, I really doubt the integrity and the decency of humanity. I’m starting to feel really, really awful about life. And so I get it. But it’s like, in reality, we can love humanity, but also be incredibly frustrated by it at the same time. And I am not the kind of introvert that goes around acting like peace and love. And I just love everybody all the time. I’m human like anybody else. And most of the time, my company is the company that I enjoy. As Oscar Wilde once said, If you love yourself, it’s the beginning of a lifelong romance. Well, let me tell you, the opposite is true, too. If you don’t like yourself, if you are miserable with who you are, that’s the beginning of a lifelong hatred, and it will spill over into everything else. So here we are, we’re in a time where we’re being told over and over and over again, that loneliness is an epidemic, adults are having a really difficult time finding and maintaining friendships. You also have people both within the prepper community and without the prepper community, trying to do like old school hippie communes or mutual assistance groups where it’s like, Okay, Bob is a dentist. And Sally is an accountant and Tommy knows how to work on cars. And this one’s a carpenter and you know, where they’re, they have it in their mind that they’re going to have this like old school, hippie commune. Everybody’s going to help each other out. They’re going to look out for each other. And there’s going to be somebody around who’s knowledgeable in any major field. This one’s an electrician, that one’s a plumber. This one is amazing at veterinary work, et cetera. And I’m like, right, right, right, right. So that sounds like complete pie in the sky to me. And watching these two warring factions in this in this prepper drama play out over the past few days. I’m like this right here, in my mind is such a perfect encapsulation of why we’re being told that adults have difficulty finding and maintaining friends. I think a lot of people have forgotten the old school rule of thumb. I heard it a bazillion times when I was growing up. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. I’ve heard Dr. Phil say before, would you want to hang out with you? If you’re going out looking for a romantic partner or looking for a new platonic friend? Would you hang out with you? Would you want to be friends with you? Do you like who you are? If you don’t fundamentally like who you are, if you’re not the kind of person that can say, You know what, if there’s nobody that wants to go to this movie with me, I’ll take myself. If there’s nobody that wants to go eat with me at this restaurant, I’ll take myself and I’ll enjoy my own company. I can sit there and amuse myself. I believe it’s more difficult to make and keep friendships if you’re super dependent on everybody else. I and walk in a grocery store or pharmacy anywhere, strike up a conversation and walk out with a brand new friend. So it is difficult for me to really understand all of these people crying, saying I just can’t make any friends. I’m like, What the hell are you doing to people? Now, I’m not saying somebody that you’ve struck up a conversation with and the middle of the pharmacy and you’ve known him for all of one hour, I’m not saying that you would call that person up at two o’clock in the morning, and ask them to come get you on the side of the road. That is a different level of friendship and to have someone who is down for you to that level. That takes time. And it also is a give and take, you have to do for them and they do for you and you establish that relationship of we can rely on each other. I know that if I call you at 2am, on the side of the road, you will come get me. I know that if I need someone to make chicken soup and put it on the doorstep when I’m sick, you’ll be the one to do it. And I will do those things for you. That takes time. That’s not going to happen after you’ve interacted with someone for all of an hour or after you’ve met them for dinner and drinks more than time. That’s not a realistic expectation. But to me, it’s like okay, I’m seeing this drama play out. And I’m like, right, right, right. But yet, you’re going to go and preach to people that they need to be in a mutual assistance group, or you’re going to tell people the value of having other people within a community that can help you and be down for you. How are these people ever? You know, if we really ever did get into an apocalyptic scenario? How are these people going to make it? You have some of them are the very ones that want to preach to everybody about how supposedly prepared they are? And how self sufficient they are. And it’s like, well, you damn well better be self sufficient, and not need anything from anybody else in the outside world. Because if this is the kind of behavior that you’re going to do if you’re going to get so flippin mad and fly off the handle and have a public internet war, who is first of all, who’s going to want to be in a mutual assistance group with somebody that’s a royal hothead? I wouldn’t. That’s that’s I’m like, no, no, no, no, no drama, no drama. No. It’s amusing to watch on the internet, while you’re having your beer in your popcorn, but I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of it in real life. No freakin way. No freakin way. But I feel like people have lost that ability of in order to have a friend, you have to be a friend, if you’re wanting to start up something along the lines of a hippie commune, hopefully without any kind of religious cult being involved in it. But if you’re wanting to have like a mutual assistance group, or you’re wanting to start up like a nouveau version of a commune, where he knows this, and she knows that and we all know how to do these things, and we help each other, we look out after each other, we have like an old school sense of community, then you’re going to have to behave with some level of humanity and decorum. Because if you can’t, who is going to want to saddle up with you. This is just some food for thought. I think as we go further into whatever this economic crap storm is, first and foremost, I believe just my opinion, I could be wrong. But I believe the onus is on you to look out for yourself and to protect yourself. If you want to join something that’s like a nouveau commune or mutual assistance group. I can’t tell you what to do. I cannot give you advice. All I can say is if it were me, I would want to really, really, really, really, really know who I was saddling up with. I would not want to get involved with hotheads drama kings, drama queens or people that are fomenting conflict. I mean, what would be the point of joining a community of people where you’re supposed to be helping one another out, and then everybody’s into it all the time. Today is Thursday, December 1, time is definitely flying at this point. on CNBC, we have headlines such as Supreme Court takes Biden student debt relief case holds program for now. Key inflation measure that the Fed follows rose point 2% In October, less than expected. So I guess we’re just all supposed to turn cartwheels and somersaults and be excited about that. Meanwhile, where are you are? Are you really seeing prices falling? I mean, they show a picture of a man shopping in a grocery store. And in particular, going into the grocery store or discount. I’m using air quotes here discount stores like Walmart or Dollar General I’m not seeing prices coming down. When I go in a store, it is still painful. We’re not back to like 2018 2019 prices yet at least not where I am in the Midwest. If things are changing for you, that’s great. I’m not seeing it yet. It tax refunds may be smaller in 2023 warns the IRS will just keep on getting squeezed only Russian warship deployment puts Ukraine on high alert Bella roo says army must prepare for defense. Again that that situation has been a powder keg for so long. I don’t know what if anything is going to really spark it off worse. I pray nothing. I hope that there will be peace in that region. Salesforce shares slump nearly 10% After co CEO Brett Taylor announces surprise departure. Now, to me these headlines are almost like same stuff different day. I mean, it’s Nietzsche Villanova. It’s nothing new. I want to read from an article that appeared on fortune.com Yesterday titled The Great remote work mismatch is here. Workers are looking for work from home roles that are dwindling before their eyes. Okay, I can’t help myself. Here he comes. Sarah was right yet again. Told you more inja the byline reads there are fewer remote work opportunities for job seekers looking for flexibility. The push to return to normal and that’s italicized has found the spark companies need to kick it into high gear. We’ve gone through just about every narrative at this point. remote work is dead. It’s here to stay. It is the new normal. Whatever side of the argument you may be on one thing stands true. Employers are offering fewer and fewer remote work opportunities, even as demand for such work remains. The result the great remote work mismatch. LinkedIn is head of global economics and global labor markets. Rand guy odd think I’m saying that right? told The Washington Post. Labor mismatches have typically centered around skills in pre pandemic times, he explained. Now he said workers are looking for jobs that offer certain attributes, like the ability to work remotely that employers aren’t willing to offer. As of October there were oh here we go. Oh, like I just like starting to trigger my gag reflex is like I can’t and can’t even hardly say it anymore. As of October, there were two onsite job openings for every one applicant looking for work. According to a recent report written by Guyana. On the flip side, there were two applicants for every one remote work opening available. That’s because the number of jobs posted on LinkedIn that tout remote work has fallen to just 14% of openings after ballooning since the beginning of the pandemic. According to the report. That’s a far cry from the more than 1/3 of private sector employers that expanded their remote work options during the pandemic per US Bureau of Labor Statistics Data. roughly 60% of those said they expected to keep the policies in place. The post pandemic push to return to business as usual, however, has led to increased demand for workers to return to offices, while companies scaled back on the flexibility and remote work benefits employees not only enjoyed, but imposed on leaders. But now the clamps are tightening. Business leaders no longer feel the pressure to offer remote work if their idea of a productive well run workforce is instead fully in office five days a week. Oh, I told you this was coming. I told you employers see themselves now is holding the cards. There’s a belief that looming layoffs amid a sliding economy means workers will be more desperate for work and forego the demands they made during the pandemic when they held the winning hand. Oh my god. Oh my god. I predicted every bit of this you guys. The job market as a whole appears to be tightening. You think the great resignation has morphed into her great remorse. Now I will button long enough to say are there some people who regret job hopping? Yes. Are there some people who discovered they went from the frying pan into the furnace? Yes. Is that everyone? No. I really think based on what I see day in and day out in the job market. I think it’s less the great remorse for most people. And I think it’s more it’s the economy stupid. I think people are looking around especially right now in q4. We are not having a q4 like we did in 2021. In some respects I’m grateful for that because having to deal with the long haul. I’m looking forward to having some more holiday time off and I mean really and truly off unplugging everything walking away from it and just you know like live During my life and decompressing, but we are not in q4 of 2021 when the great resignation was still going strong, and you could call somebody that week between Christmas and New Year’s, I was busy. I had a lot of things I was working on. And yes, you could call a candidate during that period of time, when historically nobody would be answering your freaking phone. You could call them at that point in time. And they would pick up and we asked Sure, I’ll entertain a conversation. Why not? I like to keep my options open. Yeah, I’ll take a look. Why would I not? I’d be crazy not to. That was the attitude that you found. Not now. Oh, no, no, no, no, not now. A recent Harris Poll survey more than 2000 us jobseekers found over 70% of them said it has been harder than they’d hoped to lock down a good role. And a July report from Job List found that a quarter of workers who quit during the pandemic have come to regret it. Some of the novelty of remote work has seemingly worn off for workers. I don’t believe that I’ll button and say I don’t believe that at all. To me, that sounds like corporate propaganda. Not saying that it is just telling you like Dennis Miller has always said it’s only my opinion and I could be wrong. But to me, in my opinion, that sounds like corporate propaganda, especially if they’re simply trying to find work. However, a lasting lesson from the pandemic is the value workers continue to place on having the flexibility to work from virtually anywhere. Dan Kaplan senior client partner at global consulting and headhunting firm, Korn Ferry, previously told fortune that people simply aren’t going to go back to working like before. Hmm, really, I think that’s going to depend on how hungry you are. If you need to pay your bills. If your kids need things for school, if you need good health insurance, not that there really is such a thing in America anymore. At some point, I will go and get one of my hospital bills and tell you about the insanity that I have had to deal with from this. I mean, one pill that they gave me at the hospital, they charged me $250. For what? The same pill by the way, if you go and get a generic at the pharmacy, I think it’s like, gosh, I think for like an entire pill bottle. It’s maybe $5. Just, it’s insane. You know, it’s like the horror stories of being charged 30 bucks for a band aid or $50 for an aspirin, that stuff is very much still alive and well. So you’re telling me that at a time when most people, including six figure earners are living paycheck to paycheck, and that one trip to the hospital can give people debilitating debt, you’re trying to convince me that people just simply aren’t going to go back to working like before? Really? Really? We’ll see. Who’s right. Who’s wrong. That Janet Jackson song, I think I think we’re gonna find out. Not to mention guy add points out in the report, the advent of remote work has provided more opportunities for diverse candidates and workers with disabilities. Yes, it has. And what some of these idiotic employers don’t get when they’re so freakin focused on obedience and control and compliance. When you open your requisition up to remote work, you’re being you’re giving yourself the best possible advantage to find people from all over the country. Depending on the role, you might even be able to open it up globally. I mean, why why would you not in the spirit of meritocracy and the spirit of good competition, let’s really hire the best possible person for the job. And it doesn’t matter to me, if they’re in Omaha, if they’re in Sacramento, or maybe in some cases, if they’re in Paris, or they’re in Dubai, we don’t care, we just want to get the best person for the job. But yet, you’ll have these employers are like who knew we wanted to get the best person for the job that’s within a 10 mile radius in this place, because we want them here buttoned seat. I understand that that’s the way that we did hiring. That’s the way that we did HR for decades. Trust me, I get it. I’ve been in the belly of the beast a long time, guys, I get it. But I feel like we’re in a different world now. And after having the experience of being able to truly try to source the best possible person, regardless of where they’re out in the country, and then now being told knew we really want this person to be able to commute every day. It’s like, are you nuts? Yeah. Anyway, back to the article. While the current hiring declines cloud the near term economic outlook, both factors bode well for the longer term prospects of helping create economic opportunity for those who face significant barriers navigating the job market guide wrote in the report, as we face ongoing uncertainty and a possible downturn, really a possible downturn. We are at risk of going backwards and a retrenchment, from progress on diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. remote work can be a powerful way to attract, support and retain great talent from all backgrounds and quote, that also ends the article. Yeah, so let me let you in on another little secret. You know, I have been trained and certified in latest and best di hiring practices. And I’m trying to be really careful how I say this here, but it’s like there are some companies, they will trot out, whatever they feel like they need to in the marketing department or whatever they feel like they need to on social media, that’s like, when it’s Pride Month, they’ll put up rainbows. But do they really care about that community? Probably not. I’m just being real with you. There are some companies that will put out all of these, oh, we’re committed to Dei, we really want to diversify our hires and want to make sure that we represent everyone. And then when it comes down to brass tacks, you know who they hire a straight, white male. And you’re sitting back going really, really okay. Yeah, you wanted a hiring funnel to bring in diverse candidates. You wanted to have an interview process that really respected everyone. People of color, people with neurodiversity, people with disabilities, et cetera. But then you hire an a, an A, I don’t know, what is the correct term non disabled? Heterosexual, white middle aged man, right? Of course, of course, you’re committed to di Yeah, it’s very clear from the people you hire. When you pull up their website. Everybody is a white Anglo Saxon Protestant man. And you’re like, Yeah, right. Okay. Sure you celebrate diversity, that’s really clear. But here’s the reality. I predicted this a long time ago. I am not a Johnny come lately to this party. On that note, I want to read a little bit for you now from an article I published on April 4 of this year, titled when the pendulum swings. After months of hearing realtors say, oh, no, this is not a housing bubble. This is not 2008. Here we are. Even the Fed admits there’s a brewing US housing bubble, da. For those of us who remember what that was like, and were involved in the market at the time, we’re not so easily fooled. Some of the folks whose FOMO may have gotten the best of them are in a state of buyer’s remorse now, and they wonder if they should have waited. It’s cliche but true. What goes up must come down. These insane Oh, markets do not last forever. I’m old enough to have lived through more than one boom bust cycle with oil and gas and more than one completely nutso real estate market. People paying 500k for a burned out shotgun shack on a parcel of nasty scrub can’t last. It’s not sustainable. But, but this is not 2008 mortgage companies are not giving out loans willy nilly like they did back then. Hmm. Perhaps not. But there’s still chicanery that can happen behind the scenes. I’ve heard more than a few whispers of people with too high a DTI debt to income ratio still being approved for a loan, even though one slight hiccup in life could ruin their ability to make the house payment. But yeah, sure, keep preaching. This is not 2008 to everyone to give some false confidence. Just as the pendulum will swing away from being an extreme seller’s market with buyers willing to waive inspections, over bid offer based on photos without even going to the house, et cetera. This will happen with the job market as well. It’s only a matter of time. This is one of the reasons why I have repeatedly said that job seekers should try to gain as much from the great resignation as possible, because the day will come when the market changes. Yeah. Yeah. I think that day has already come. I think. Yeah, okay. I’ve said it so many times. Like, again, I’m like a broken record. If you wait to be officially told, in my opinion, you have waited too late. For a while. I would say it is an auspicious time to get strategic about who you are listening to. And why. Where are you getting your advice from? If you listen to someone who makes prognostications about things, Are they accurate? We’re all human. Sometimes we’re gonna have hits in Sometimes we’re gonna have misses but generally speaking, do you feel like you’re getting the truth from the people that you’re listening to? At this point is way, way past time. If you’re still listening to hoopla and corporate Hogan and complete bull crap. Wow, I, again, I feel like this falls into the category of people who are probably not going to make it. I understand Debbie Downer that sounds very bleak. I’m just trying to be real with you. I called this situation on the job market, and now I’m being vindicated even by mainstream media. Hello, how you doing? Here we are. Today, it is Friday, December 2, we have made it I am so glad. Over on CNBC, we have headlines such as the blazing hot jobs report, just put the fed on a tight rope, payrolls and wages blow past expectations flying in the face of Fed rate hikes? Well, here’s a prediction alert. In my opinion, we’re getting a lot of hot air, a lot of hype a lot of hopium. And I believe that this will be used as further ammunition to continue crashing the job market. The Fed has not been shy in saying that they want to see unemployment go up. And that they want to see wages stagnate. That leaked Bank of America memo made it super clear that they felt like the balance of power had shifted way too far in favor of job seekers and employees, and they wanted it to go back to corporate America. If you don’t think that things are going to get worse in that regard. Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, I guess. There’s also a headline, here’s where the jobs are for November 2022 in one chart. Now when we look at their chart, according to them, leisure and hospitality is far in a way where all of these supposed jobs are. And I would be willing to bet that they’re not all full time. They don’t all have benefits and they don’t all pay a living wage. Plus you’re talking about an industry that tends to have that high churn and burn turnover rate just like fast food. Hello. This is more information that I’ve been telling you. These opposing hot jobs are not jobs that I would say a majority of the population wants to work. I’m sorry if that offends anybody. I’m just trying to be honest with you. Now, when we go to the bottom of the chart, where there’s been the most shedding of jobs, it’s in retail, trade, and transportation plus warehousing. You know, I just don’t see this getting any better. I think we’re gonna ride into this nightmare scenario, continually being told to open jobs. Are everyone going merline labor shortage glamour? vireb. All right. Okay, of course. Now, we did at least get some further information from a LinkedIn article, I’ll drop a link to the blog post. I wrote about it today so that you can check that out. We at least got some further information some further like Wink, wink, nudge nudge intel that those suppose had to open jobs for every one unemployed person they were but in seat jobs? And I’m like, Well, no wonder. I mean, I don’t really think that there’s any two legitimate open jobs for every one unemployed person. But then when you add in the fact that they were but in seat jobs and not remote work. It’s not a wonder people, by and large, who have been working successfully remote only since the pandemic or maybe even before the pandemic. They don’t want to go back. The bosses want them back. They don’t want to go back. Over on the side panel for LinkedIn, we find job cuts at CNN Gannett wash post. In that article. We read layoffs in recent months that have been concentrated in the tech sector spilled into the media industry this week, and all been in long enough to say that’s another way the narrative could get spun. Oh, these layoffs that were just in other areas. Oh, they’re coming to your industry now too. It just spilled over like, oh my god, we can’t believe this happen. Yeah, well, if you read my content or you listen to this podcast with any regularity, it’s not going to be a surprise to you. With CNN newspaper publisher, Gannett and the Washington Post all cutting jobs Thursday. CNN has not said how many employees were like dough, but the network’s own coverage describes the layoffs as the deepest cuts to the organization in years. CNN sister channel headline news will reportedly cease live programming and saw it staff gutted variety reports. Gannett parent company to USA Today and more than 200 dailies is downsizing its 3440 person news division by 6% or roughly 200 People point or rip Ward’s noting that this is the third round of job cuts in six months at the largest newspaper chain in the country. The Washington Post said it will stop publishing its Sunday Magazine this month, and eliminate the 10 roles associated with it. NPR needs to reduce spending by $10 million, and is instituting close to a total hiring freeze as part of that effort. CEO John F. Lansing said per insider, about 200 Associated Press employees near retirement age have been offered packages that would allow them to take their pensions as lump sums and quote. So we’re getting hot air and hopium in my opinion, about the job market, how strong it still is, it is blazing hot, even though the Fed has been trying God bless them to cool it off and to bring some stability back o ne ne ne it is still red hot. But then we’re also hearing about more and more layoffs. And they’re spilling out of the tech sector and into other industries. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you just it’s like, I can’t I mean, there’s no way to make that make sense. It’s absurd. On another note, I want to make a sort of PSA. As I always tell you, I can’t tell you what to do. I’m not giving you advice. You have to live your own life and make your own decisions. I’m putting this out there as general information and some food for thought. Based on a recent experience that I had, I would highly encourage any of you to do a little bit of research into your bank, and credit cards, policies and procedures around things like fraudulent charges, last lost or stolen cards lost or stolen checks, et cetera, know what you would be liable for, know what their procedures are and what you would need to do. I mean, do you have an app where you could just turn your debit card off instantaneously? Do you have to call a hotline like what do you have to do in the event of crime, or something being lost. So yesterday was my birthday. And it had been a pretty serene evening, I went out to eat with the family had a great meal had a great piece of cake. And I was just I was kind of in my little sugar high and just really digesting. And I’m like well at least I’ve lived to find another day. Even though that long haul. Rona sugar has tried to take me out, I’m still alive and kicking for now. It was in a good mood, it was in good spirits. And it was after hours. So like the drive thru and the lobby and everything at the bank, all of that was closed. But I needed to make a couple of deposits. And at one of the banks here in town, they have this like area where you can go in and use a machine. Whether you’re making cash or coin deposits, whether you’re making check deposits, if you want to do like a funds transfer, if you want to check your balance, if you want to use it like an ATM and get cash. You can do a wide variety of like your typical banking tasks 24 hours a day. I have not ever had a problem with that machine before. Then, of course, you know, because it was my birthday and was in a great mood. I guess Murphy’s law said, Oh, guess what? Hang on and hold my beer and watch this. So this machine malfunction while I was in the process of trying to use it. And it’s it took my card. And there was no way that I could get my card back. And it was just frozen on this one particular screen. So there was a courtesy phone in this area I tried to use it could not get a hold of anybody. It was after hours. Yes, I grant you. But still, you’re gonna have a courtesy phone in there. I mean, shouldn’t it go to someone somewhere? Especially if you’re going to tell everybody this machine operates 24/7 You can go in there any point in time, and it’s fully functional? Well, what if there’s a tech problem? Do you not have anybody on call for that? could not get a hold of anybody. So then I get on my cell phone, I start looking up alright, well, maybe there’s something on the website, there was no number that I could call to reach a single solitary human being. Now at one point in time, they had a fraud hotline. So if you saw fraudulent charges, if your card was stolen, your crime victim, anything like that, you could call in 24 7365 an actual real human being would answer the phone. They do not have that anymore. And it shocked the crap out of me, because a lot of the larger corporations and corporate owned banks. Yes, I know. I get on here and I rag on corporate America and I talk about the bankers and the fat cats. One positive thing I think we can put in their column is at least most of them have some kind of 24/7 hotline If you need to report credit card fraud, or debit card fraud, or you’ve lost your texts or something, I was really, really stunned. And it provided one hell of an education for me. Let me tell you, sometimes getting a good slap across the face will teach you something. I remember my friend Bill, always saying a hard lesson is a good lesson. And damn if that ain’t true. And some platforms will have an app, or they’ll have a website you can log into. And you can go in yourself, and instantaneously freeze everything. That way. Neither you nor anyone else can access your accounts and do anything fraudulent while you’re waiting for a new card or a new checking account number or whatever. And to me, that’s not necessarily a bad arrangement. But all that this bank could offer me was me doing things by some automated telephone service, and then hoping that my card was frozen so that no one could use it. And I’m like, Yeah, I’m sorry. But that’s not good enough. I was so mad, and I wound up having a lousy night asleep. Because basically, their policy is after the bank closes, you’re on your own. And I’m like, Well, what would have happened, let’s say if somebody had stolen my number, or I lost the card, I didn’t realize it and somebody started racking up fraudulent charges, like two in the morning. Their attitude is you just have to handle your own problems until the bank opens again at 8am. The following morning, and I guess if it’s a weekend, you’re really screwed. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, man, that was infuriating. And then to sort of rub some salt in the wounds when I finally did get a hold of some actual human beings. I felt like I was talking to Beavis and Butthead. I mean, yeah, to some degree, I can laugh about it now, because everything was okay. And I was able to have the card reported, and it’s no longer active. And so I did get the situation resolved. But man, it taught me a very, very valuable lesson about knowing who you’re doing business with, and getting getting clarification about what are their policies and how are they going to handle it because you do not want to be taken to the cleaners, you don’t want to be in a situation where it through no fault of your own, some hacker or some thief has gotten your information, and you can’t just shut things down and know that you’ve shut them down immediately. Another thing now, I know, believe me, believe me, there are plenty of commentators who want to tell you about how evil credit cards are, I’m only going to give you my personal opinion on it, I am not going to tell you what to do. This is not financial advice. It is just me opining for your entertainment only. In my opinion, the great thing about using credit cards is you do have more fraud protection. And because it’s not linked to a checking or savings account, you don’t have that added stress of oh my god, could somebody like empty out my checking account? Could they empty out my savings account? Like how bad could this get? And I know somebody will, without a doubt, email me and be like, well, you know, debit cards have fraud protection, too. They’re not supposed to hold you liable for fraudulent charges. Yeah, but how long does it take to get a human being to help you? And then how long does it take to dispute the charges that are fraudulent? How much do are you going to have to go through before everything is cleaned up? Whereas typically, again, just based on my experience, and in my opinion, anytime that I’ve had issues where I needed to dispute a credit card charge, it’s been quick. It’s been simple. And I have never knock on wood. I’ve never had a situation where I had to report a fraudulent charge. Or I had to dispute a charge. Someone said they were going to mail me something and they didn’t. Somebody said they were going to provide a service and they know showed I’ve never had a situation where I had to dispute a charge and the credit card did not come down in my favor on the issue. So this experience has really, really opened my eyes to what the world is like right now. And what people you’re going to be dealing with when you do finally get a human on the phone is like oh, sorry, man. Oh, okay, Beavis. Thanks. So I would just encourage you to know and understand what your bank’s policies are. Know who you’re banking with. Know what they would do. Do they have a 24 7365 customer service hotline? Do they have like fraud protection, that’s 24/7 If you needed to call at three o’clock in the morning, or you needed to call over a long haul Holiday weekend because some a-hole stole your card or got your number and started racking up charges, would you be able to turn the card off immediately and do damage control? Would you be able to report the fraudulent charges immediately so that you’re not on the hook for them? I can’t tell you what to do. I would just, you know, strongly say that, in my opinion, it’s a really, really good idea to know the policies and procedures ahead of time so that you don’t get blindsided. Same thing with this wacko job market, we see what’s coming. We understand what they’re trying to do, and I think burying your head in the sand about it. Not a good strategy. I just don’t think right now that ignorance really is bliss. It’s tempting to say that it is oh, well, I don’t know won’t hurt me. Well, there’s times in life where it most certainly will. Stay safe, stay sane. And I will see you in the next episode.
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