The pandemic has changed the concept of work, workplace and the workforce. As employers spruce up their USPs, hybrid and flexible work, mental health focus, and hiring from smaller cities and towns are here to stay.
Yes, the Great Resignation is the result of many things, including a reassessment of priorities, strong labor market, and pandemic burnout.
Yet, a factor that isn't being talked about enough is that workers are feeling less connected to their leaders and colleagues in a remote or hybrid environment. This lessens feelings of loyalty and makes it easier to walk away from their jobs.
As hybrid work transitions from a temporary pandemic-era band-aid to the normal way of working, many leaders are wondering how they build an inclusive hybrid culture. The pandemic laid bare existing inequalities at work—around caregiving, race, and even age—and while there is an opportunity to "build back better," the path to "better" is unclear, even for leaders committed to inclusive organizations.
When it comes to designing an inclusive hybrid work culture, there are three main tensions that organizations and teams need to manage:
If they're being totally honest, most people who worked in offices prior to the pandemic are terribly conflicted right now. They miss their colleagues and the amenities available "at work"—the coffee bar, ready access to copying machines and IT trouble-shooters, the brainstorming sessions, the friendly banter and the after-work happy hours—but they don't miss the commute and they're loving the freedom and flexibility remote and asynchronous work has given them.
It's against this backdrop (and the tenacious pandemic) that organizational leaders are trying to figure out: Where do we go from here?
Job openings totaled nearly 11 million in December while the Great Resignation cooled off, according to Labor Department data Tuesday.
Reflecting a tightening labor market, vacancies rose to 10.92 million, well above the FactSet estimate for 10.28 million and an increase of 1.4% from November. The rate of job openings as a share of the labor force was unchanged at 6.8%.
Recent studies show that right now, women and people of color are at greater risk for depression and anxiety.
Racial trauma at work shouldn't be part of the equation, but it often is. In my former life, I worked in corporate America in non-profit spaces for 15 years, and there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't experience some sort of racial discrimination. Imagine how taxing that is. Those micro- and macro-aggressions don't just go away; they sit with us, and we sometimes experience them several times a day, even in virtual environments.