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‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

cnbc.com

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Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#41

Post by lkrubner »

dcolkitt wrote: post #15

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

"destroy morale for the remaining"

This depends on how you define morale. Morale can be thought of as the willingness of people to make difficult sacrifices to maintain community ties, in the sense offered by the essay "Why Strict Churches Are Strong":

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/230409?jou....

In that essay, they make the point that there are no freeloaders in a strict church, and that is what draws people to strict churches. Strict churches will be smaller than non-strict churches, because non-strict churches allow a lot of members who do not participate very much in the life of the church. In a strict church, people obey a large number of rules, and make substantial sacrifices, to belong to a group in which everyone else is also making sacrifices, and therefore, in a sense, everyone earns their place. And by most definitions of "morale" strict churches have better morale than non-strict churches.

It's the same with any organization, including the military, and including corporations. Asking people to show up to an office means you're asking people to make a sacrifice to continue being a member in good standing. Such a request can weed some people out, but that is the point of the request. For those who are left behind, morale is higher because everyone is known to be making that sacrifice.

There are several qualifiers that are normally added at this point, raising questions over the fairness of the rules, the fairness of the enforcement, and the group perception of the fairness of the enforcement. I'm not going to write all of that out in a comment on Hacker News, I think the essay I linked to above covers most of the details.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#42

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

In my experience at least talking to some younger people there is a clear dichotomy: despite all the talk about Gen Z being "digital natives", people new in their career are much hungrier to get back into the office because they don't yet have good career networks built up and they're eager for mentorship. It is older, or at least more established workers who are less keen on that.

I don't think FAANGs will have any trouble hiring a boatload of eager, hardworking college grads in September even if they lose multi-digit percentage of their current workers.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#43

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

kaycebasques wrote: post #10

Here's a blog post outlining why I left Google this month (June 2021) to take a 1-year sabbatical: https://kayce.basqu.es/sabbatical/prologue/ (Per AnIdiotOnTheNet's feedback here is a summary of my motivations and a compare/contrast with the ideas mentioned in the CNBC post) The main thing for me was the prospect of having kids in the next 5 years. It doesn't seem like it will ever get easier to have a sabbatical th…

Personally I don't have a high tolerance for the "look at this link" style of post. It's low-effort and feels like an ad even if it isn't.

Now, if said link is accompanied by a brief overview of the contents or some other insight or commentary, that's much more acceptable.

For the record, I did not down vote you, I'm just offering perspective on why someone might have.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#44

Post by okprod »

polynomial wrote: post #36
eric4smith wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha good point. I learned to do it so it’s easier for people to read instead of a wall of text. People usually get bored with a wall of text. My sentences are longer on desktop - but I was writing on mobile now.

I am really glad not everybody does this

Technically their text's line breaks are at the end of finished sentences. I don't write as staggered but after 20 years out of school I've also shifted toward writing mostly in bullet points.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#45

Post by gliese1337 »

alexdias wrote: post #26
dcolkitt wrote: post #15

I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Sure it could all work out fine for them. Maybe employees will grumble for a bit, then settle back into office life. But maybe it wont’t . There’s a very real possibility that you lose a non-negligible percent of your staff (disproportionately the most talented who have other options), handicap your ability to…

> I’m honestly perplexed what the FANGs are even thinking in being so aggressive about pushing an end to WFH. Yes, aggressive measures such as: -Allowing employees to apply to be permanent remote employees -Allowing 2 WFH days per week

...which policies were only implemented after significant employee pushback over the originally-announced "everyone will be going back to the office full-time" plans.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#46

Post by lumost »

It's WFH and higher than expected inflation. As an employee you're likely facing substantial cost increases in food and potentially shelter. People haven't been traveling all that much during COVID - but I'd bet that travel and other expenses are going to see higher inflation in the near future.

Companies have grown accustomed to a 2% "performance" raise. This year it's suspect that 2% keeps you treading water. Why wouldn't we expect employees to move?

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#47

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

mdorazio wrote: post #19
null_object wrote: post #12

I honestly don't know whether these articles are over-stating their case, and neither do I know how typical my own experience is, but for some reason it bothers me that the tone of the HN discussion is so reflexively dismissive. I understand that a lot of people will respond to a question of whether they intend to quit their job with a 'you bet!' even at the best of times, but I'm seeing a lot of people quitting and…

I can only speak from personal experience, but fwiw I'm currently consulting with 2 non-tech Fortune 500 companies. Both have implemented "hybrid" return to office policies where employees have to live within 100 miles of the office and be able to come in 1 day a week or 1 day a month depending on team. I've talked with executives in charge of large teams at both companies about this issue and so far it looks like th…

Purposefully designed office time would be immensely better for folks that need dedicated time to do work.

That means better organized meetings with a purpose rather than a bunch of weekly meetings that are there just cuz.

I think it is some personalities just need human interaction more than others and when they are in management/executive roles they want people in the office.

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#48

Post by bryanrasmussen »

frankbreetz wrote: post #2

>>a whopping 95% of workers are now considering changing jobs, and 92% are even willing to switch industries to find the right position, according to a recent report by jobs site Monster.com. This seems very high to me and little suspect, what is even more suspect is that they didn't link the report. I have seen a few of these articles, but no good report that tracks this over time and all the articles dismiss or omi…

>This seems very high to me and little suspect, what is even more suspect is that they didn't link the report.

does a jobs site have a reason to maybe exaggerate that number?

Re: ‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect

#50

Post by yohannparis »

ziggus wrote: post #38

Fine, you want to WFH? Awesome, expect a pay cut. Part of a modern white-collar salary has some expectations built into it, like the fact that people need to be compensated for the inconveniences of leaving their homes and coming to the office and therefore having to pay for things like childcare, cars, clothing, parking, etc. Don't have those expenses anymore? Then why should I compensate you the same as if you did?…

You are both right and wrong.

Sure, you can hire a remote worker in India for less; go ahead.

But how people are paid as nothing to do on how they spend it to work. If someone has a partner that can take care of the children at home and walk to work, are you going to pay them less than someone who needs daycare, a car, a parking pass?

You pay to get skills executing a task. You put a price on it, adjust it to market value, and done. Who cares if the worker is in Bora-bora sleeping under the stars or in a suburban house in LA commuting in a new leased car.

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