14 Jun Refusing to hear that the job market is changing
Meanwhile, for Sara Causey, a consultant who specializes in staffing and recruitment, it is the unwillingness of employees to face reality, especially as it relates to RTO, that’s got her worried. “I think some folks have their heads in the clouds,” she said, expressing concern for staff who continue to resist coming back to the office, particularly Gen Z workers, even as job postings for exclusively remote roles are tapering off. “The smart move is putting together an RTO survival plan rather than plugging your fingers in your ears and refusing to hear that the job market is changing,” Causey warned.
My full quote to the journalist:
One of my biggest concerns is the unwillingness to face reality. I think some folks have their heads in the clouds, especially as it relates to RTO, and I worry that too many people will simply not be prepared for what’s coming. More companies are clamping down on the remote work holdouts and, as was recently reported in WSJ, some are offering relocation and sign-on bonuses in order to recruit individuals who commit to in-person work. Job openings for fully remote roles are tapering off, yet I still see people posting on social media about how they will resist RTO forever, Gen Z will universally refuse to work in an office, everyone will sign a petition, and so on. For me, the smart move is putting together an RTO survival plan rather than plugging your fingers in your ears and refusing to hear that the job market is changing.
A narrative we’ve heard from the hot air & hopium crowd is that somehow, even in the face of living paycheck-to-paycheck and dealing with debt, we will see a massive rebellion against RTO. A nationwide strike! And I have been a voice in the wilderness telling you: no freakin’ way.
“At Amazon, employees staged a walkout this month over the company’s return-to-office mandate, which requires employees be in the office at least three days a week. The company seemed unfazed by the protest and is sticking with the mandate.” –https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paul-graham-says-remote-does-225728000.html
Well no duh. Not only will petitions and angry Slack channels and mad emojis not stop what’s coming, neither will walkouts. So even if somehow, against the odds, masses of people said, “Screw it. We’ll sit at home with zero income and wait for WFH to come back,” Corpo America is not gonna care. Scabs will cross the picket line and AI solutions would be implemented that much faster if it gained any steam at all.
“Amazon employees staged a protest this week over the company’s return-to-office mandate. The tech giant doesn’t seem too bothered by it. ‘We’re always listening and will continue to do so, but we’re happy with how the first month of having more people back in the office has been,’ Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told Fortune.” –https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-unfazed-remote-workers-protesting-190427347.html
This is like when Dr. Phil tells people that anything coming before the “but” in the sentence is irrelevant. So in reality, what’s being said there is: we’re happy with RTO.
“Pamela Hayter, an employee, told workers gathered at the Wednesday walkout that her ‘heart just dropped’ when she read the announcement ‘because I knew immediately the negative impact that this would have on my family.’ Working from home, she explained, had allowed her to spend more time with her family than she thought was possible before the pandemic. ‘We don’t have to spend hours of our lives in traffic, hours of our lives at an office building,’ she told those gathered on Wednesday. Glasser told Fortune that since the return-to-office mandate went into effect ‘there’s more energy, collaboration, and connections happening, and we’ve heard this from lots of employees and the businesses that surround our offices.’ Earlier this year, Hayter started an internal Slack channel where workers could voice their support for remote work. She described the channel as the largest concrete expression of employee dissatisfaction in Amazon’s history during her speech.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
I admire her moxie, no doubt about that. An internal Slack channel of dissatisfaction is nothing to Amazon. Ничего. Nichts. Rien. Zippety-doo-dah. The article even refers to it as “slacktivism”:
“The United Nations has defined slacktivism as when people ‘support a cause by performing simple measures’ but ‘are not truly engaged or devoted to making a change.’ Slacktivism typically means taking to social media. It encompasses things like retweeting words of hope after a national disaster or liking a charity’s Facebook page—as the study implies. However, it can also include non-digital actions like wearing a ribbon on your shirt to bring awareness.” –https://nonprofithub.org/what-is-slacktivism-does-it-help/
I think back to the NYPD cop fussing at the relentless horn-honker because his actions would not cause the cars in front of him to vaporize into thin air.
“…amid large tech layoffs and economic uncertainty people are now ‘more worried about job security so there’s less—and I’m not saying this is a good thing, necessarily—but there’s less labor organizing happening on Slack than there would have been two years ago.'” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
Bingo. Allow me to throw this down yet again:
–https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fed-interest-rate-hikes-unemployment-increase-layoffs-inflation/
And this, too:
–https://theintercept.com/2022/07/29/bank-of-america-worker-conditions-worse/
Once John & Jane Q. Public wake up to the reality that we do not have a 3.7% unemployment rate, a robust labor market, and 2 legit open jobs for every 1 unemployed person, sh*t’s gonna get real. More people will RTO and do whatever the boss wants just so they don’t lose their job during an economic downturn. 🤷🏻♀️ This is not a difficult equation to figure out; the problem is that too many people want to live in denial and listen to sunshine & roses instead of getting a game plan together of how they’d survive a job market crash. And IMO, the hyper elites are counting on that because if you don’t get your stuff together and face reality, it’s easier for them to steal your assets when the economy tanks.
“Amazon downplayed the attendance at the headquarters walkout, estimating the crowd to be 300 people (organizers put the number higher) and noting it has 65,000 corporate and tech employees in the Puget Sound region, and 350,000 globally. Employees protesting the company’s environmental impact and recent layoffs were also part of the walkout.” -Yahoo Finance, Ibid.
The total number is up for debate. Some put the figure around 200 and others at 1000. (https://www.geekwire.com/2023/how-big-was-that-amazon-walkout-crowd/) Nevertheless, it appears Amazon doesn’t think it’s any big deal and they haven’t walked back RTO in the face of it, which is zero surprise to me.
Are you in touch with reality or are you still listening to grifters and goofballs who peddle nonsense on social media? Those people will not help you if you take bad advice from them and suffer the consequences for it. Be judicious about who you’re listening to and for what reason.
No Comments