Today, 3/18/2023, in the front page of the StarTribune newspaper, is impartial, well-written, fascinating article entitled “Gen Z job turnover poses challenges for retention”. This article by Dee Depass starts like this: “If you think the Great Resignation is over, think again. The latest snapshot of the job market by recruiting giant shows that more Generation Z workers are likely to change jobs in 2023 than last year. About 60% of 18-25-year-olds said they would like to change jobs in early 2023, up from 53% last year. More than 50% of employees with two to four years at a company and working parents also said they were looking. The trend worries hiring managers and is leading companies to bolster retention efforts even more in a stubbornly tight job market.”
My response: I remember visiting my elderly Ramsey cousin in Casper, Wyoming in 1981 and Ralph told me that the key to my secure future would be to stay at a company for 40 years like he had. He had worked at an oil refinery for 40 years. Obviously, young people today do not and should not follow that advice. They need to change for reasons of satisfaction, relocating, higher pay, but I think better treatment is the biggest reason for people moving around.
Almost all workplaces are dictatorships, and that is okay if the boss is a benevolent or democratic dictator, but if he is abusive and mean, it is a punishment to go to work, and we all need to work to get money to support ourselves, to give our lives meaning and to feel good about ourselves that we are contributing members of society.
And with the onset of wokeness creeping over from government and Academia and from Leftists billionaire and millionaire owners, private company culture are more hierarchical, and less tolerant of diversity and individualism (the premium expectation is sameness, brown-nosing an conformity), not initiative, productivity and competence. When you treat workers like crap, surprise, surprise, your resignation rates go through the roof.
Most employers are frustrated about the high turnover rates, but cannot or will not eliminate the toxic work culture that breeds unhappiness, dissatisfaction and turnover.
Depass continues: “As the U.S. economy emerges from pandemic disruption in 2021, nearly 50 million people quit their jobs, setting a record. Even more workers—50.5 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics—resigned last year. The youngest workers came out of the pandemic wanting bigger paychecks—and then ‘an extremely flexible work schedule.’ The work-life balance was most important for 45% for Gen Z and 40% of millennials, said Jennifer Carlson, vice president and region direct of Robert Half for the Twin Cities.
In contrast, only 30% of surveyed baby boomers insisted on flexible schedules during their job hunt.
‘We do know there are clear preferences for younger people to work in as agile and flexible a work situation as they can find,’ Carlson said. ‘That is as clear as a bell.’
It also should not be a surprise, said Lola Brown, 22, a Macalaster College employee, student and soon-to-be job hunter. This spring, she plans to quit her job, move to Washington, D.C., and hopefully find a job as a policy analyst.
If the pandemic taught Gen Z-ers anything, ‘it’s that everything can change on a dime,’ she said. They ‘have to be nimble and pivot,’ she said. ’There is a new recognition of what is fair and expected, whether that be how much I am in the office or how much sick time (I get). It is not the same as pre-pandemic,’ Brown said.
My response: Clearly, the low unemployment makes it easier for workers to feel confident that they can resign without hurting their rehire chances. They grew up in a throw-away culture and cynical throw-away attitudes by companies towards workers is now reciprocated by workers with a throw-away, short-term loyalty to their employers. And they are used to working from home and with huge armies of contract employment, this all leads to higher turnover rates.
Depass continues: Sara Beth Ryther, who joined Trader Joe’s Minneapolis store 19 months ago, sees coworkers and acquaintances who work for other retailers leave all the time. ‘People are job hopping because of one or two benefits they see at another retailer,’ Brown said. ‘I see people get sick of the low pay or how they were treated and look at another retailer and think the grass is greener.’
The 350,000-member Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found other triggers can make young workers leave. Nearly 70% of workers who work remotely now said in a SHRM survey they would look for another job before returning to the office full time. ‘If you are young, that number jumps to 79%’, said SHRM Chief Human Resource Officer Jim Link. ‘Is that not incredible?’
Young workers, he said, are neither fazed by huge tech company layoffs or rumors about a potential recession.
My response: That is a huge shift for people used to worry about losing their job for fear of not keeping their house or being able to support their families.
With low unemployment still in the Midwest, people are still fearless about switching jobs.
Depass continues: “Labor availability is still tight; making labor shortages the second biggest concern for the 530 companies surveyed recently by Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, said the bank’s outreach director, Ron Wirtz.
Nationwisde, 3.9 million Americans quit jobs in January, causing companies to boost wages, add retention bonuses, and offer free training, remote work options and free food. ‘Employers start with increased wages and flexibility and then bring on a smorgasbord of other efforts, Wirtz said.
With inflation, higher interest rates and soaring grocery prices, ‘we have enough economic headwinds in front of us, but the labor market is still very vigorous and very strong . . . and younger workers appear to be bound and determined to find as much agility as they can in their workplace,’ Link said.
In looking for other jobs, young workers want psychological safety. ‘They want a purpose, fit, fulfillment and the right culture,’ one where they can speak their minds without fear of being fired or ostracized, said Jessica Kriegel, chief scientist of workplace culture at the firm Culture Partners.
The persistence of that finding should be a wake-up call for employers already battling high turnover and labor shortages.”
My response: I have noticed that many employers now have cameras everywhere in the work place, except for the bathrooms. If workers know that they are under constant video surveillance, and management targets someone for whatever reason because they are a bad employee, or are a dissident or individualist, then the technology is a tool of persecution and oppression, and the workers will be angry and upset, and more inclined to turn over.
I have been working for 53 years. I have been in SEIU, AFSCME, Teamsters, Meatcutters and Operating Engineers, Local 70. If workers could form a union that move from company to company with them, or I they were anarchist-individuator supercitizens, then as owners, employers, managers, supervisors, employees and contract workers, these maverizers would work together accidentally to make each work place as democratically supervised, but well run and orderly as a dictatorship with fairness courtesy and respect for workers expected and enforced, then detention should go down and retention should go up as workers fin purpose, fit fulfillment and the right culture where they can speak their minds without being terminated or ostracized as long as they are not disrespected, violent or insubordinate in expressing their point of view.
If individuators as workers become common, going to work will be a much more enjoyable venture, with more happiness and much less suffering and abuse from a mean boss likely to occur let alone be forborne.
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