The Great Resignation?

[disneysteve]

Healthcare is being dragged through the mud right now. A lot of the IT operations have moved 100% remote with no plans to return. The savings are too good, and opening up the candidate pool to be nationwide really helped. On the care side, well, they can't really ever be remote.

Well, some of them can. Our urgent care started offering telehealth services due to COVID. Initially, it was strictly for COVID screening and referring people for testing, but now it's for a variety of conditions. There are a lot of straightforward issues that can be handled remotely. If the provider feels an in-person evaluation is needed, they send them to one of our physical sites. We have 3 or 4 providers who now exclusively do telehealth when they used to work in person.

[ua_guy]

"The savings are too good?" Meaning the savings on office space rental, utility bills, landlines, paynig maintenance workers, janitorial services, etc?

Yeah, at least where I've worked a lot of the office space has been repurposed or closed. So, they've shed some costs and with the general uptick in productivity with people working from home, it's a really good option for some employers.

[QuarterMillionMan]

The sense I get with employers (is, Apple, Tesla, Google, etc) is the "trust" issues over-power the cost savings and thus want staff back in the offices.

[ua_guy]

The sense I get with employers (is, Apple, Tesla, Google, etc) is the "trust" issues over-power the cost savings and thus want staff back in the offices.

Yes, absolutely. It's a competing mix of things, really. Extroverts gonna be extroverts. Some people are miserable at home. Bad leaders generally need that in-office view over their employees' shoulders.

Apple/Tesla/Google have all gotten serious flak from employees over mandatory return-to-work. Those are the employers who have backpedaled (all but Tesla, I think). I have a friend at TMobile and they've gone back to the office - and I hear it's not going well.

[QuarterMillionMan]

If big government (my employer) can do it and it has the unions to deal with, the privates should be able to do it better and allow its staff whose jobs are conducive to work remotely do so but the "trust" issues keep calling the staff back to the office. I know some private sector telephone operators/receptionists whose jobs would be perfect to WFH but the employers make them go back to the office.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Today on CNBC.

[QuarterMillionMan]

New trend.

[james.hendrickson]

I will say this...its not always clear to me if what's being put out in the mainstream media is actually something we need to be concerned about.

Yeah, childcare is an issue and quiet quitting is an issue also, but is really something we need to lose sleep over?

[ua_guy]

The childcare issue....I know parents who lose sleep over that. I'm sure there are a few who can comment here. Even before the pandemic... high cost, limited availability, and policies that drive people nuts.

Quiet quitting....that is something I believe is in the media because it's a buzz-phrase right now, and there are two very heated sides to the debate over it. I work in one of the totally burned-out sectors of the economy, and it's real. At the end of the day, it's not my company and I'm not paid to double my time spent at work because the company doesn't have resources or budgets to accomplish the things it wants to. Had this conversation with my boss last week. I'm planning to walk if things don't change...appreciate the opportunity, but the job market is good, and I don't need this job. Until then, I do what I do and if it doesn't get done, I don't feel personally responsible -- I've given.

[QuarterMillionMan]

[QuarterMillionMan]

[rennigade]

The great resignation...yeah, people realize that sitting in a cubicle all day at a job you're not that into sucks. I dont blame people one bit for not wanting to work. I dont think they should be given free stuff to help them survive, but if you can wing it on very little money and can spend more time doing the things that make you happy, go for it. I dont have that sort of risk tolerance built into me. I plan on retiring early, but only because im hoping we have more than enough money to last us the rest of our life when the time comes. Just scraping by isnt for me.

I wouldnt over analyze people not wanting to work. Its pretty simple. Doing things you want to do is better than doing things you do not want to do. Chasing the dollar is getting old and people are over it. The end.

This sums it up: https://www.instagram.com/reel/COm3c..._web_copy_link

[disneysteve]

The great resignation...yeah, people realize that sitting in a cubicle all day at a job you're not that into sucks. I dont blame people one bit for not wanting to work.

It’s not that people don’t want to work. It’s that they don’t want to work at a crap job making crap wages doing something they hate.

Many people used the COVID shutdown to go in a different direction. They switched careers. They started their own businesses. They monetized hobbies.

There are numerous people in my eBay groups who made that their full time job in the past year or two. They’re happier than they’ve ever been, love what they’re doing, and are earning as much or more than they did at their old jobs. I certainly can’t fault them for that.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It’s not that people don’t want to work. It’s that they don’t want to work at a crap job making crap wages doing something they hate.

Many people used the COVID shutdown to go in a different direction. They switched careers. They started their own businesses. They monetized hobbies.

There are numerous people in my eBay groups who made that their full time job in the past year or two. They’re happier than they’ve ever been, love what they’re doing, and are earning as much or more than they did at their old jobs. I certainly can’t fault them for that.

This I found to be true. Instead of waiting tables they work at a school district maybe as a assistant or aide making 2-3x what they made with regular hours and benefits. They might have gotten a job in an office with regular hours and benefits so about the same pay but better prospects. That's a big deal for many people and the labor shortage you can see in restaurants and fast food and those sort of worker. Why do crappy job for crap money when you have a chance to make a lot more elsewhere? Who can fault them for that?

[kork13]

I will say this...its not always clear to me if what's being put out in the mainstream media is actually something we need to be concerned about.

Yeah, childcare is an issue and quiet quitting is an issue also, but is really something we need to lose sleep over?

I always take anything spewing forth from the mass media (especially TV "news") with a HEAVY dose of salt. They're all about sensationalizing issues for ratings, controversy, and entertainment -- they've lost all credibility IMO.

That said... Childcare definitely remains a problem. A big part of the issue is that families who need it most often can't afford suitable childcare providers who are compensated fairly. Nobody wants to watch screaming kids all day for peanuts. So families get stuck because there's not enough childcare options available. While I generally oppose most government subsidies ..... I do think that childcare is one of those areas where it's authentically warranted & needed. In order to expand quality childcare availability, there needs to be enough money in it for providers and it also needs to be safe & affordable for families. That means paying providers adequately (probably >$15-20/hr), keeping child-to-provider ratios under control (like 5:1 or better), and limiting childcare costs to a specific dollar figure and/or income percentage per child (like a max of $400/mo or 5% of income per child, whichever is lower). And by making childcare options more readily available & affordable, it would allow WAY more people to be productive & successful in the job market. Families DEFINITELY lose sleep over the childcare issue, even at the higher end of the economic ladder (it's a frequent challenge for my family as well as most of my peers/co-workers, across a broad income spectrum).

I'm not sure what "quiet quitting" means ... just disappearing from work & never showing up again? Showing up but being non-productive? Some other form of leaving a job you hate or don't get paid adequately? Whatever the case, that's a factor of both changing societal norms and poor company policies....and probably a sizable share of terrible personal responsibility (but that goes back to changing societal norms). I'd argue that labeling the trend with a confusing buzzword (whatever it means) is a disservice. It hides the real issues involved, and lets both individuals & companies skate by under the premise of blaming "quiet quitting" when both sides of the problem need to take responsibility for their respective roles in creating & perpetuating the underlying issues and take action to resolve them.