There they go again on BBC Radio 4, wondering why the job market seems to be missing so many workers. They talked this morning about the Great Retirement as though it’s about some people simply deciding to retire early, taking it easy sooner than expected, and some other people being unable to afford the commute any more.
Talk to more people and there’s more to it than that.
People who talk with me didn’t simply decide to take it easy. They saw workplaces as too often unsafe for their health. They got fed up with bosses still treating them badly while complaining that nobody wants to work any more, when a tight labor market means they could readily jump to a place that will be nicer to them.
On the whole, the people I hear are willing to work, but not at the risk of death or disability and no longer in a workplace that treats them like garbage when they could be treated as valuable somewhere else.
I also hear people who are looking for a job finding that the application and hiring process is too often still behaving as though workers are powerless and employers can behave any way they want. If you tell an applicant you’ll get back to them next week with a decision and then you don’t, they don’t just cross your company off the list of places they’d like to work. They tell their friends, and their friends cross you off their lists too. You’re left with the dregs.
In both of my countries, right now the tight labor market puts power in the hands of workers. If you’re a boss and you need good people, you’ll have to grant them the respect they are due, treating them like they are as valuable to your business as they are. They’re walking away when that doesn’t happen.
This isn’t the Great Resignation, but it is a major reset in the relationship between employer and worker.
I am one of those who chose to retire without notice because of a hostile work environment, due to a guy who felt that bullying good employees was an effective management technique. He supported supervisors even though they were wrong, and instead of training them how to be better at their jobs, supported them in their failures. Several good employees either retired early or quickly found other jobs because of this. I'll never understand why supervisors think highly productive (and award-winning) workers deserve this, but it's rampant in both private and government jobs. I feel free, despite the constraints of a very modest retirement income. And there are now remote jobs that can help with that. I didn't realize your neck of the world also experienced the "Great Resignation." Interesting times.