Articles

TASA ID: 22108

As increasing numbers of companies are requiring employees to return to the office for 3-5 days per week this fall, they’re running into the buzzsaw of what one of my clients called the “Four Horsemen of the Required Return to Office” - challenges with resistance, attrition, quiet quitting, and diversity.

The Four Horsemen stem from the fact that workers who are capable of working remotely prefer to do so for most or all of the time. For example, an August 2022 Gallup survey of remote-capable workers shows that 34% of respondents want to work full-time remotely, 60% want to work a flexible hybrid schedule, and only 6% want to work in a traditional office-centric setting. A June 2022 McKinsey survey of all workers, remote-capable and not, provides further context on preferences for hybrid work. It found that 32% of respondents want to work full-time remotely, 10% want to work remotely four days a week, 16% three days a week, 18% two days a week, 13% one day a week, and 13% prefer full-time in-office work. Thus over half of all respondents want to work less than half the time in the office. And a September 2022 survey from the School of Politics and Economics at King’s College reported that 25% of respondents would quit if forced to return to the office full time.

TASA ID: 22108

With a triple pandemic of COVID, flu, and RSV hitting the US hard this winter and resulting in an explosion of cases, business executives need to take the lead on promoting the newly-updated, Omicron-specific boosters. Doing so will help reduce the number of sick days taken by their workers, minimize COVID outbreaks and superspreader events in their companies, reduce employee fears about returning to the office, and position executives as trustworthy participants in stakeholder capitalism.

TASA ID: 22108

“Let’s say there’s a game: 51 percent, you double the Earth out somewhere else; 49 percent, it all disappears. Would you play that game? And would you keep on playing that, double or nothing?”

The vast majority of us would not take the risk of playing that game even once. After all, it seems morally atrocious to take a 49% chance of all of human civilization disappearing, for a 51% chance of doubling the value of our civilization - essentially a coin flip.

TASA ID: 22108

After firing half its workforce, Twitter is already asking many to come back. Indeed, research McKinsey finds that even as recession fears grow, 40% of workers plan to quit their jobs. And a survey from Greenhouse, a New York City-based hiring software provider, finds that 57% of 1,500 employees plan to still be actively looking for a new job even if a recession hits. That’s not surprising, and aligns with the early November jobs report, which finds that U.S. employers added 261,000 jobs in October, higher than the 200,000 predicted by economists.

That might not bode well for many tech companies firing workers. For example, responding to its sharply-falling share price, Meta is laying off 11,000 workers, 13% of its labor force. It’s unlikely that such radical layoffs are a good decision. That’s especially the case since the just-released US labor market report for tech jobs shows continued strength, with tech companies actually adding 20,700 workers in October. That includes remote work: job postings for tech positions that specify remote work continue to rise with a year-to-date rate of 34% compared to 27% in 2021 and 22% in 2020. Clearly, remote work seems here to stay.

So what are the most successful strategies for hiring and retaining talent amid these uncertain economic times, and how can you use these strategies to navigate our increasingly-disrupted environment?

TASA ID: 22108

Imagine you put on an old coat that you have not worn in a while, and to your surprise find a crumpled $20 bill in your pocket. How good does it feel? Do you go up half a notch on a one to 10 mood scale, or maybe a full notch?

Let’s imagine a different scenario. You’re buying ice cream from an ice cream cart and take out a $20 bill to pay. Suddenly, a gust of wind sweeps it from your hand and into a nearby sewer grate. What does that do to your mood on the one-to-10 scale?