23 Dec “Fear of being laid off”
Remember the commentators who assured us that remote work is here to stay and employees will simply draw a line in the sand and refuse RTO? I felt like a lone voice in the wilderness saying otherwise. I saw a post the other day on LI (oh the treasure trove that platform is) and it went like this:
Agreed. Candidates 100% need to evaluate a company and determine if everything makes sense. A good rule of thumb: if you get treated like 💩 during the interview process, you’ll be treated even worse if you become an employee. In the comments section, someone dropped this truth bomb:
I agree with both posts, TBH. And to be fair, the author said he did not do it in an effort to teach Corporate America a bigger lesson. But both of them are right: a) you need to evaluate opportunities and companies for yourself and with your own interests in mind, and b) Corpo America is not gonna sit and cry if a candidate leaves the hiring funnel, mmkay. Especially not with what’s coming and not with the white-collar Great Resignation being toast.
This helps me make the point I want to make: if the bulk of Corpo America pulls a Lord Elon and tells everyone, “C’mon back or it’s your job” in the midst of high unemployment and a recession, guess what? Most people are gonna go back, like it or not. The fat cats do not care about your feelings or your application withdrawals or your preferences. The commenter is spot-on: humans are replaceable in their eyes.
Here’s one part of the BS narrative that hasn’t changed, apparently:
“For the majority of workers, even in a slowing economy with recession headlines published on a daily basis and stocks in a bear market, layoffs remain in the abstract.
Fifty-nine percent of American workers are not concerned they or someone in their household will lose a job in the next few months, according to a new survey of the labor force from CNBC and Momentive. And even more (80%) are confident they would find a new job in six months or less if they lost one today.
This worker confidence makes sense in a labor market still running exceptionally hot, but there are some notable exceptions, starting with the niche of workers that have been the envy of the rest of the working world during Covid.” (emphasis mine)
–https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/21/the-new-remote-work-trend-fear-of-layoffs-and-not-finding-a-new-job.html
*Rolls eyes back into head.*
“Remote workers are less confident in their ability to find a new job quickly, according to the CNBC|Momentive Workforce Survey for Q4 2022. Specifically, 24% of those working remotely say they could find a new job in one month if they lost their current job, versus 41% of fully in-office workers who say the same. And 24% of those working remotely say it could take more than six months to find a new job, versus 16% of fully in-office workers.
‘Remote workers are the most fearful of layoffs, because they know they have had a sweet deal: they may have suffered through the early dysfunction of Covid, but they’ve since reaped the benefits and relative autonomy created by working from home. That power dynamic will naturally swing back to employers if the economy weakens,’ said Laura Wronski, senior manager of research science at Momentive.” -CNBC, emphasis mine
Could part of this be anti-WFH propaganda? Of course. Throw some fear porn into the market and see what happens. But I truly believe it’s more than that. I think this is a kind of opening volley for what’s yet to come. The anti-WFH hit pieces / pro-RTO fluff pieces will transition into something much worse, trust me.
As I always say: IMO, if you wait to be “officially” told something, you are waiting too late. WAY THE HELL TOO LATE. What this researcher is saying on 12/21/22 is something I warned you about earlier this year:
Just as the pendulum will swing away from being an extreme sellers’ market with buyers willing to waive inspections, overbid, offer based on photos without even going to the house, etc., this will happen with the job market as well. It’s only a matter of time.
But just as the market can’t sustain obscene real estate prices, I don’t think the job market will remain so heavily candidate-driven forever either. In the event of a recession, I think we will see the job market change much faster than if we don’t have a recession. To return to my 2008 comparison, if you had a job you could even halfway tolerate at that time, you did whatever you had to do to keep it. The fear of being unemployed and having no options was palpable. Presently, the market is rewarding job hoppers much more so than job stayers. In a recession, we will see that change.
–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2022/04/04/when-the-pendulum-swings/ published on April 4, 2022
TOLD YA SO!
Let’s return to the second paragraph for a moment:
“Fifty-nine percent of American workers are not concerned they or someone in their household will lose a job in the next few months, according to a new survey of the labor force from CNBC and Momentive. And even more (80%) are confident they would find a new job in six months or less if they lost one today.” -CNBC
It’s scary to me how many people are still asleep at the wheel. Not shocking, just scary. I’m in the process of writing a mini-book / field guide about how to survive a job market crash because I don’t see any way around it. Things will get worse before they get better and yowza. People who aren’t adequately prepared will be steamrolled. The hyper elites who are waiting to scoop up assets will gladly take advantage.
Be naïve at your own risk!
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