Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 531 posts

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

#11

Post by helen___keller »

eric4smith wrote: post #7

I think regardless of the stats, there is a movement of people wanting a better work and life balance. But what will this mean for society? For one, I see in the immediate future a bit of a reduction in commerce for a while. This is simply because people will have less money To spend. Duh. Still… humans always persist and adapt. Therefore in maybe 5 years there will be more of a Renaissance and a big change in how we…

> I’d love to hear how the next 5-10 years would play out.

You, me, and every economist, analyst, and investor.

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

#12

Post by null_object »

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 switching right now, as different company plans are crystallized for the 'new normal'.

In my current company (for another 2 months) I was interviewed to join a team of 12 tech developers, and a couple of months ago the first of the switchers quit to leave for another company specifically because they were guaranteeing remote-first work.

Then another five of us quit over the following few weeks. We met up last week for a goodbye lunch in the park: half the team that I joined a year ago leaving the company over the Spring and Summer.

Is a 50% quit-rate normal? Maybe each of us had slightly different priorities and plans for the future? But I do know for sure that people are reflecting more than I've ever experienced before, about their work environment, the balance in their lives, and prioritizing other things than 40-50 hours each week sitting in front of a screen, inside an office.

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

#14

Post by seneca »

eric4smith wrote: post #7

I think regardless of the stats, there is a movement of people wanting a better work and life balance. But what will this mean for society? For one, I see in the immediate future a bit of a reduction in commerce for a while. This is simply because people will have less money To spend. Duh. Still… humans always persist and adapt. Therefore in maybe 5 years there will be more of a Renaissance and a big change in how we…

Meta-response, but what is with the carriage return after every sentence, (and sometimes in the middle)? It's a jarring way to write.

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

#15

Post by dcolkitt »

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 recruit replacements, and destroy morale for the remaining. For companies who’s entire value is the intangible human capital of their workforce, this seems like a pretty big fucking risk to take.

I get it. Maybe you think WFH is long term unsustainable and it will erode corporate culture and what not. But the point is it’s pretty clear that it’s not short-term unsustainable. Obviously companies have survived for a year without the train swerving off the tracks. Why would any rational company want to be the first back? Why not just wait six months after the other FANGs go back to see what happens? At worse you lose a half year in the office, which clearly isn’t that bad. At best, you potentially save the entire company from collapsing.

Making such a big push to go back in September instead of waiting until January just seems reckless to the point of irrationality.

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

#16

Post by foobarian »

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…

Interesting game-theoretic play: play chicken with return to work plans. Big co promises remote-first work indefinitely, scoops a bunch of talent from competitors who return to office first, then later go back on their word when nobody else is offering those terms. Even if some get to stay remote new hires may not be offered that.

Corollary I guess is that some of us might be able to lock in a remote-only position if we act now.

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

#17

Post by quaffapint »

These posts are silly. Sure there are some that will leave their full time office to a more flexible one.

I myself do not want to go back to our open office layout full time and Im checking out my options. Still though its going to just be a small percentage. Of course there might be more slowly over time as more remote/hybrid opportunities become available.

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

#18

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#19

Post by mdorazio »

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 the actual resignation rate due to the policy is less than 10%. Hiring, on the other hand, has gotten significantly harder and candidates are citing need for wfh as a reason they're not interested in open roles.

So, personally I think tech workers are overrepresented in the "wfh or quit" discussions, but there's a longer-term shift of some kind that's going to play out, especially in hiring.

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

#20

Post by dalbasal »

"Great Resignation" is an annoying term, but IMO this is a current development worth following. Just.. there must be a better way of following than these articles.

These're put together like school projects. Some anecdotal human story, some quickly summarised generalizations and speculation, some "quick stats" from 3rd party sources that I suspect they don't study very deeply. It's rote.

Anyway... the timing of the current labour & money markets to WFH necessities throws a lot of cards in the air. The second and third order implications of WFH are pretty vast... pretty unpredictable too.

Post reply on HN