The job change tsunami
According to Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) research, a full 52% of American employees are currently searching for new jobs, and 57% say they are burnt out on work.
According to a recent KPMG CIO survey 86% of jobs have moved to be remote, and 43% will probably remain remote.
The pandemic has caused a shift in the employment landscape. It caused people to rethink their priorities. Before, they knew they were on a work treadmill, but they never felt like they could do anything about it.
There were always those voices talking about designing your own lifestyle and breaking free of the 9 to 5, but that was the exception. Most people still wanted a good job for good pay and were unwilling to take a pay cut to get a healthier or happier life. They were wiling to commute for hours and sacrifice their own health and happiness for the job.
The pandemic gave people an opportunity to reassess their assumptions. Working remotely and from home people were able to pilot some different conditions. They were able to answer some questions that had, up until this point, been unattainable fantasies.
What would life be like if you didn’t have to drive in and out of the city every day?
How would your life change if you could spend more time with your spouse and kids?
What would you do if you could walk out into your garden every day?
These are unique times and unique circumstances.
For me, having worked remotely, many times in the past, it wasn’t a great big change in lifestyle or any kind of epiphany, but for many it was a first time experience. And thus, they were shoved like fish out of water gaping into the remote work lifestyle.
Depending on your job and your personality type and your living conditions, this may have been a total shock to your system or a great relief, or, a combination of both.
Some jobs are naturally synchronous with remote work. For the most part any white-collar office job can be accomplished remotely. But there were challenges. When you change the basic mechanics of what work means you can’t just lift-and-shift the previous mechanisms. Things have to adjust for the new constraints.
If you look at the data we have so far some companies did a horrible job of this lift-and-shift, both for the company and the employees. Employees worked longer hours and got less done. How was that possible? Probably had something to do with the endless video calls that people were on.
If you’ve got 8 straight hours of no-break video calls you’re not going to get much done and you are going to be exhausted.
Some companies saw the exact opposite. Employees worked less and got more done. It depends on the company. We don’t know why this disparity exists, but I think when they research it, they will find it has something to do with culture.
And, let’s be clear, we are talking about white collar office jobs here. Hourly service jobs are still the same shitty jobs they have always been. I see these yahoos on LinkedIn saying they can’t find workers for their shitty jobs because of government assistance. To them I say ,you can’t find workers because it’s a shitty job. And, if you’ll permit me, it has little to do with pay. It’s about culture.
But I digress.
What is happening now is workers are changing jobs or leaving jobs at a higher rate than ever before. Right now. There is what some are calling the ‘job-change tsunami’. Probably because tsunami is fun to say. If it was me I’d call it a ‘JobQuake’.
I sense that this is a global trend. I know it’s a US trend. Nearly 4 million Americans left their jobs in April, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — an unprecedented number in the two decades the government has been tracking this data, pushing the quit rate 24% higher than it was before the pandemic.
This is causing a big demand for hiring. There is a hiring tsunami going on as well.
Some of these quits are people walking away, getting off the treadmill and using the pandemic as an opportunity for a fresh start.
Some workers are leaving for new jobs with better wages or remote-friendly working conditions. Others deciding to start their own business rather than collecting salaries. Yet others are resigning without a firm plan and are confident that they will be able to get better deals elsewhere as the economy recovers from the pandemic recession.
What does this mean for workers and job seekers? It means it’s a sellers’ market right now. There are more jobs than job seeker. This means you can get more. You can get more money, more freedom, more of whatever you want in a job if you’re willing to shop.
To you who still want to play the career game now is the time to trade up. For those who want a better life balance, now is the time to negotiate it.
What does this mean for companies and bosses?
Well, like I said above, it’s a seller’s market so you can’t have a shitty product. You’ve got to look at what this new wave of post-pandemic job hunters want in a job and figure out how to give it to them.
You’ve got to start hiring because even in good companies the churn in the market means you’re going to lose people. Now’s the time to look at your organization and your hiring processes and get creative.
What does it mean for the world?
I’m an optimistic guy. I think these sorts of reshuffles in the job market are good for everybody. It’s like a game of musical chairs where, when the music stops, hopefully workers will be in a better place and companies will benefit from that as well.
It can be a fresh start for people who have felt stuck.
At the end of the day it’s a temporary misalignment of supply and demand. The market forces will close that gap and close it quickly. You can look for this to last maybe 6 months. But, I’m no economist. You run your own game.
One thing is for sure we are in a unique position with this JobQuake right now. We’re going to look back at this strange time nostalgically, I’m sure.
Now’s a great time for everyone to reassess what work means.