Live data from Hacker News

The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

wsj.com

31–40 of 49 posts

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#31
post #22
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WSJ writes hit pieces because they know exactly who their audience is (the business wing of the Republican party and the Republican wing of the business community) and if they didn't write hit pieces, said audience would lose interest.

Horrible bosses and cut-throat capitalist business practices are totally bipartisan.

Fair enough, so their audience also includes the crypto-Republican wing of the Democratic party.

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#32

Nobody is quitting because jobs are more competitive than 5 years ago. This looks like yet another WSJ hit piece on the lower classes. The company management isn't to blame for people getting fired, it's the workers (who perform) not quitting. Those pesky workers make it so hard for a company to always look like the good guy. They really are always the good guy, obviously.

One life lesson I learned the hard way is that even if you're stuck in the most toxic workplace imaginable, never quit your job (unless you have an offer elsewhere).

Fight back. Make them fire you. Don't start smearing shit on the walls or watching porn during meetings, just do the job so poorly that keeping you there is an expensive headache.

I once worked for two scammers and generally try to be a good employee. Yet the workplace abuse became intolerable (wage skimming) and eventually I'd had enough, so I left without having anything else lined up.

Big mistake. The recession hit, it took me a year to find another position, and the entire time I was ineligible for unemployment because I voluntarily left. If I had just said fuck you, put my feet on my desk and printed copies of random documents found on network shares all day, I could have been freed up to find a better position on their dime.

Layoffs invite unemployment claims, which increases their insurance premiums. "Waaah, people aren't quitting" is a bunch of whining execs wanting to reduce headcount without the PR or financial consequence of continued layoffs.

Lest we continue to wonder what the real reason behind the mandatory RTO and other recent policies designed to make working intolerable or unfeasible.

Next up will be pointless bureaucracy, time-tracking, bean-counting and other inane traditionally-punitive measures employees will struggle to keep up with...the insanity of which makes people jump ship like rats fleeing the Titanic.

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#33
I want to see a reality TV show (not really, I don’t watch TV) following those US bosses WSJ talks about trying to survive in Europe. They seem to have headaches when people leave, headaches when people stay, headaches when people mention unionizing, headaches when people use their sick leaves. In an environment where at-will employment gives them the upper hand.

Maybe they aren’t too fit for being bosses after all.

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#34
The number of articles reaching absurdity. Has it always been this way and I am just more aware? 1. People are paid too much 2. No one wants to work 3. They are quiet quitting/lazy girl jobs 4. We have lower unemployment than ever 5. Everyone's getting laid off 6. No one is quitting

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#35
> At Pitney Bowes, where the attrition rate is also down year to date, the shipping and mailing services company has had a few instances in which it hired an intern, expecting a vacancy to open in the company, only for the existing employee to remain in the position.

That's a curious usage of the word "intern".

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#36
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two main reasons: First, and probably the largest motivator, is that if you fire someone without cause they will typically be able to collect on unemployment insurance which would increase the employers premiums each month. Second, nobody likes to fire people especially if they haven't done anything wrong. Also, layoffs like this hurt the moralle of the remaining workers which could turn into too much turno…

You forget the legal ramifications of firing someone. If they are a protected class - POC, women, disabled, etc. - it can mean a large headache in the form of a lawsuit, or a complaint to a labor board. Many companies have run into this when attempting to separate someone who advocated for unionization.

> Many companies have run into this when attempting to separate someone who advocated for unionization.

Just to quickly clarify on this, firing someone for advocating for a union is illegal regardless of their protected status, employee organization is itself a protected activity.

If a business ever does get into hot water over something this, I would very much advise against saying to a judge, "no, our decision to fire had nothing to do with discrimination, we were merely retaliating against an employee for organizing."

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#37
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSJ can’t help but write hit pieces, I think they are paid for. Firstly workers should be grateful to waste hours of time commuting to office jobs and shouldn’t be allowed remote jobs, then the next meme is “silent quitting”, the current meme is “workers aren’t quitting enough (sub text: bosses are running out of ways to instil misery and stress)”

The WSJ writes hit pieces because they know exactly who their audience is (the business wing of the Republican party and the Republican wing of the business community) and if they didn't write hit pieces, said audience would lose interest.

[deleted]

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#38
post #15

Last year, there were a number of high-profile lay-offs in the tech industry. Companies used those not only to get to "lean" staffing levels but also to get rid of underperformers en masse. If you happen to have survived those, but aspire to just coast for a while, this is a great time for you. Budgets remain fairly constrained, which means that if a manager needs to let someone go because of lackluster performance,…

Bingo! You will not get fired unless you literally are adding negative value. If you're doing work that adds value you'll be around until the next rif at least

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#39
post #34

The number of articles reaching absurdity. Has it always been this way and I am just more aware? 1. People are paid too much 2. No one wants to work 3. They are quiet quitting/lazy girl jobs 4. We have lower unemployment than ever 5. Everyone's getting laid off 6. No one is quitting

My theory is that this type of propaganda has always been around. What happened was that before the pandemic people were conditioned to keep their heads down and pretend everything is great. Dissent was a pipe dream. With the shock of the pandemic now the "drones" are no longer playing nice which leads to the overlords turning the propaganda machine to 11 and the absurdity of shit pieces like this from wsj or hbr

Re: The new headache for bosses: Employees aren't quitting

#40
post #27

Nobody wants to quit anymore.

The great resignation was actually the great reshuffling where people just exploited the heck out of the market to get better paid jobs. Now they are surprised that people don't want to give up those higher paid jobs and return to shit pay?

It's shocking! Shocking I tell you!

Post reply on HN