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As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

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Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#21

Post by [deleted] »

beforeolives wrote: post #10
lordnacho wrote: post #8

The first guy in the article is a dev. There's never been a better time to find work as a dev. Jobs are handing out more money with more flexibility than ever seen before. On top of it all, if your firm wants people back in the office soon, now is the time to do loads of remote interviews so that you can keep being remote. I was interviewing recently and almost everyone is at least partly remote, with a huge number o…

> Jobs are handing out more money with more flexibility than ever seen before. I'm in the UK and not seeing any of this.

[deleted]

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#22

Post by kaycebasques »

vincentmarle wrote: post #9

This is admirable but the truth is that these jobs will not disappear, they will simply be outsourced abroad. There’s swaths of competent people abroad that are happy to take your (overpaid) place and the major shift to remote work tools has made it all the easier to blend in your team even if they’re working from another country. On top of this, foreign workers usually get paid 1/3 of the American salary, so the emp…

The first counterargument that comes to my mind is timezones. I was on a team distributed across San Francisco, New York, London, Munich, Australia, Tokyo. Not being able to schedule a meeting time that works for everyone was a neverending source of friction and frustration. In other words while I don't disagree that there is a lot more work that can be outsourced, perhaps we will reach the limit earlier than you expect.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#23

Post by mjburgess »

streamofdigits wrote: post #17

There is no doubt that the pandemic has been a huge mental shock (and hopefully it will trigger overall more sustainable and meaningful behaviors). But sketching how the post-pandemic work landscape would look like seems extremely premature. People currently underappreciate the impact of government support at all levels. The sense of calm and control (or the absence of panic if you wish) is the result of an unprecede…

> which among others has demolished the brain-damaged neoliberal narrative

oh?

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#24

Post by wayoutthere »

beforeolives wrote: post #10
lordnacho wrote: post #8

The first guy in the article is a dev. There's never been a better time to find work as a dev. Jobs are handing out more money with more flexibility than ever seen before. On top of it all, if your firm wants people back in the office soon, now is the time to do loads of remote interviews so that you can keep being remote. I was interviewing recently and almost everyone is at least partly remote, with a huge number o…

> Jobs are handing out more money with more flexibility than ever seen before. I'm in the UK and not seeing any of this.

Y’all have Brexit to thank for that. All my clients relocated any technical work they had in the UK to Poland or the baltics.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#25

Post by _dibly »

vincentmarle wrote: post #9

This is admirable but the truth is that these jobs will not disappear, they will simply be outsourced abroad. There’s swaths of competent people abroad that are happy to take your (overpaid) place and the major shift to remote work tools has made it all the easier to blend in your team even if they’re working from another country. On top of this, foreign workers usually get paid 1/3 of the American salary, so the emp…

From reading the article it seems like the job areas getting hit the hardest would be low level hospitality jobs and on-site jobs with little to no remote opportunity. I imagine those would be the hardest positions to outsource. People quitting their job at McDonalds are in more danger of losing their job to a high school dropout than a foreign agent.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#26

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

vincentmarle wrote: post #9

This is admirable but the truth is that these jobs will not disappear, they will simply be outsourced abroad. There’s swaths of competent people abroad that are happy to take your (overpaid) place and the major shift to remote work tools has made it all the easier to blend in your team even if they’re working from another country. On top of this, foreign workers usually get paid 1/3 of the American salary, so the emp…

We'll have to see how that works out in the aggregate.

Here in the US, we pretty much outsourced our manufacturing to China.

This has always been the case (since after WWII), but this time, we did it to such an extent, that we have destroyed our domestic manufacturing infrastructure.

A number of folks made a lot of money on this, but a much larger number of folks have really taken it in the shorts. Arguably, a lot of the troubles we've had, over the last decade, have found a root cause in this.

It's no secret. Pretty much everyone knows this, but the will to do something about it is weak.

It's been my experience, that when the pain gets great enough, the change will come. That's not always a good thing. Change like that, more often resembles an amputation, as opposed to a disinfectant swab and some stitches.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#27

Post by ud_0 »

I'm one of these. I'm an allrounder software dev in his late fourties, "lured" into a non-software middle management position by the promise of money and stability a few years ago.

In practice, the money has never materialized because our sector took a big hit and much of that promise was tied to incentives based on the company's success. I can't really blame anyone for this, but that's strike one as far as job satisfaction goes.

Second strike, I love writing code, and I don't get to do that a lot anymore. I'm listing these "pre-existing conditions" because I believe it's common for us quitters to have other areas of dissatisfaction that hadn't been enough to drive us over the edge by themselves.

Third strike, while my company does not support WFH after Covid, I did get to experience at least a partial WFH program, and it was absolutely wonderful. There's a problem though: I would absolutely like to continue working from home, but I also want to work on my own projects, on my own terms, on my own schedule. A traditional full time job is not compatible with that.

So I put in my notice for the end of this year, to allow current company projects to come to a conclusion and/or hand them off. I want to stress that for a man in my age group, with no significant savings or other safety net, this is extremely scary. It's just that this Angst is outweighed by the thought of staying on the treadmill hoping for an eventual reward that may never come and seeing the little time I have left drain away.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#28

Post by bamboozled »

dougmwne wrote: post #11

5 years ago I hit a burnout point and took a year off work. It was a huge perspective shift. I realized that my day-to-day of a rushed commute to work, a stressful and distracting office, thimble-deep coworker relationships and a life completely orientated around doing the above was an insane waste of my short time on Planet Earth. I reoriented my life around family, remote work, flexibility and balance. My quality o…

Nice you have the option

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#29

Post by mjburgess »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #26
vincentmarle wrote: post #9

This is admirable but the truth is that these jobs will not disappear, they will simply be outsourced abroad. There’s swaths of competent people abroad that are happy to take your (overpaid) place and the major shift to remote work tools has made it all the easier to blend in your team even if they’re working from another country. On top of this, foreign workers usually get paid 1/3 of the American salary, so the emp…

We'll have to see how that works out in the aggregate. Here in the US, we pretty much outsourced our manufacturing to China. This has always been the case (since after WWII), but this time, we did it to such an extent, that we have destroyed our domestic manufacturing infrastructure. A number of folks made a lot of money on this, but a much larger number of folks have really taken it in the shorts. Arguably, a lot of…

This narrative is largely false. Both because nothing was "outsourced" and because american manufacturing is at an all time high.

Automation ended the vast majority of high-labour manufacturing. What was left was only economical to do without automation at extremely low labour costs.

In the next decade, china itself will see large segments of its manufacturing labour gone to automation.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#30

Post by toxik »

Interesting shift but it’s probably confined to the US. It seems the US has been toughest on its lowest paid workers. Many if not most other western countries already have extensive welfare programs, with the benefits and ailments that it brings. This means many low-paid jobs simply don’t exist, e.g. bellhop, elevator operators, etc, and that any work requiring employees is much more expensive. The question is, can the US rein it in again? I think so, sadly.
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