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The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

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Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#31

> The Great Renegotiation is also a byproduct of inflation. Workers are seeking better pay to keep up with the rising cost of living. Keeping in mind small business is collectively the largest employer and contributor to US output... let's remember the coming rate hikes will greatly reduce available cash to small businesses that operate with credit lines, credit card debt or via home equity lines. That is a LOT of US…

>In reality, it's a delay of an inevitable downturn unless some magical productivity innovation or goods/services advance emerges to rescue the US economy.

That sounds kind of like a plan. Delay until something random happens.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#32
post #4
post #2

"The Great Resignation" feels a bit like a phrase that folks have grasped on to and just attach the narrative they want to believe to it. Constant articles and such with very little data. Very frustrating as a reader. The idea that amid a pandemic and such that there are a variety of reasons seems backed up by the data, although I admit that's what I'm inclined to believe / seen.

Here's my thought: most employees are quite risk averse, and businesses have been able to take advantage of that in order to negotiate better for wages (better=lower wages). The pandemic essentially forced people into being more comfortable in taking higher risks. It turns out that marginal increases in risk taking translate into wage gains.

I just changed jobs. For me it was my job pool increasing by 10x or 20x due to the normalization of remote work. It's also much easier to interview when you're WFH all the time.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#33
post #20

I think too its a result of 30 years where employers have had the upper hand in the job market (except perhaps 1999, 2008). Wages have stagnated during these decades, it seems finally maybe wages can catch up.

Wages are going to have to go up. House prices aren't going to come down, rent isn't going to come down, used car prices may come down but not to levels in the before times and only if new car prices don't skyrocket, food won't come down.

It's getting very expensive to meet the ends. Wages will have to go up. When ppl think things aren't fair, they revolt.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#34
post #21

> spectacles like the immense popularity of the "Anti-Work" thread on Reddit — have gone as far as to suggest this record-breaking trend is a movement of young, able-bodied Americans rejecting work altogether. I don't think this is the point of "anti work". The point is (to me) that people should be treated equitably at work and that work shouldn't be the center of our lives

This is honestly my gripe with r/antiwork. It could be (and sometimes is) a hub for a mature conversation towards unionizing and regaining meaningful industry in the US, but it choses to be the place for edgy workers from all ages to declare themselves "marxists". As if they thrived on the ever-diminishing amount of gasps that word incites. Like a bunch of teenagers trying to out-edge everyone else. Hard to read.

I'm convinced that subreddit will eventually get banned. Some members are radicalized and I see calls for violence very frequently.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#35
post #11

I rarely see any mention of how just so many people dying + becoming disabled impacts the job market. Historically big drops in available labor lead to improved labor negotiation (e.g. working conditions, wages). The "great resignation" is only one facet.

COVID probably hasn't had a major impact in that respect there are a total of 859,354 deaths in the entire country which is only 0.2% of the population, but of the working population it is even smaller than that as almost half of that is in individuals who are 75 or older and unlikely to be participating in the workforce dropping us to less than 0.14% of people being effected, or slightly more than 1 in 1000 people.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-...

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#36
post #5
post #2

"The Great Resignation" feels a bit like a phrase that folks have grasped on to and just attach the narrative they want to believe to it. Constant articles and such with very little data. Very frustrating as a reader. The idea that amid a pandemic and such that there are a variety of reasons seems backed up by the data, although I admit that's what I'm inclined to believe / seen.

You are doing that right here (narrative with little data). Even the NPR article says "the labor force participation rate remains significantly smaller than before the pandemic and it's still hard for employers to fill open jobs". There is data to back this up and it's not just a narrative.

> There is data to back this up and it's not just a narrative.

The narrative is directionally correct. The issue is that the media (including NPR) has done everything they can think of to exaggerate it as much as possible. Once you look at the actual numbers it’s not the sea change we’ve been hearing about everywhere.

The data is being omitted because the omission leaves more room for imaginations to run with the headlines.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#37
I think it's a bit of both.

It's not only about the money. Many people are realising just now that they don't get paid enough to take all the crap they get from work.

Anecdotally, I know a handful of engineers who quit their jobs because of this. They were making good money, just not good enough for the number of sleepless nights and stressful days they were going through.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Constant articles and such with very little data. Very frustrating as a reader. Actual resignations are up slightly, but the idea that employees are quitting in droves is exaggerated. It’s higher than normal turnover, but the stories are written in ways to suggest that companies everywhere are gutted by employees leaving in bulk. I feel like “great resignation” was deliberately chosen to mislead people into thinkin…

Anecdotally in my business I saw effectively no churn in employment through most of the pandemic. Hiring new people was also nearly impossible. Then, towards the end of last year a significant number of workers quit. Finding new people to replace them also was surprisingly easy. I suspect a lot of people were afraid to move on to new opportunities for a while due to the uncertainty of the pandemic. Once enough confid…

I can certainly see this as a contributing factor.

My own experience is that during the first year of the pandemic I was just cooling my heels in a stable position. Later, the prime factor for me moving on was the whole return to office narrative. I've embraced fully remote and now demand it.

As such, I found a new job in Q4 and moved on, for a 25% pay increase as well.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#39
post #11

I rarely see any mention of how just so many people dying + becoming disabled impacts the job market. Historically big drops in available labor lead to improved labor negotiation (e.g. working conditions, wages). The "great resignation" is only one facet.

COVID probably hasn't had a major impact in that respect there are a total of 859,354 deaths in the entire country which is only 0.2% of the population, but of the working population it is even smaller than that as almost half of that is in individuals who are 75 or older and unlikely to be participating in the workforce dropping us to less than 0.14% of people being effected, or slightly more than 1 in 1000 people.…

Thanks for replying with that... there's no mass piles of bodies in the streets impacting the workforce.

Re: The Great Resignation? More Like the Great Renegotiation

#40
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go to r/AntiWork on Reddit and read their sidebar, it's fairly easy to understand what the point is: > A subreddit for those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, want to get the most out of a work-free life, want more information on anti-work ideas and want personal help with their own jobs/work-related struggles.

That's what's in the sidebar, but a quick browsing of the posts in there suggests a more socialist bent to me.

Yeah, as it got more popular during the pandemic it was quickly co-opted into more of a pro-workers rights subreddit, and nowadays it's mostly people posting clearly fake screenshots of themselves telling their bosses off over text for to farm karma.
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