"The Great Resignation"

[Poetic Justice]

Why millions of Aussies are about to quit

If you’ve just come out of yet another stint of working from home through a lockdown, and you’re feeling both physically and mentally exhausted, you are not alone.

www.news.com.au

"The Great Resignation is about to hit Australia with millions anticipated to quit their jobs. Thinking of joining? Read this first."

Now, as the dust settles, the economy improves and the breadth of job opportunities increases, people are reflecting on their experiences. The perceived need to be ‘always available’ for work without any additional recognition, respect or reward has many realising that work itself is now a threat to their happiness, health, relationships and mental outlook.

Guess I missed out that those funky start up 'tech' businesses where you get to come and go as you please, play games during the day and spend your hours doing everything else that doesn't look like work were advertising millions of jobs at present.

This sounds like a massive overstatement - but if a decent percentage of it comes to fruition then it just goes to show that we're either already a lazy population or becoming one.

 

[Gralin]

We are awash with Business Propaganda now in the papers

About all the great opportunities if you stay with your employer or are looking for a new job

 

[raskolnikov]

I'm a Queenslander and what is this "lockdown" of which they speak?

Having said that I am planning to resign at the end of next year.

 

[Gralin]

I'm a Queenslander and what is this "lockdown" of which they speak?

Having said that I am planning to resign at the end of next year.

well for you it would be the one where you haven't been able to leave your state with a guarantee you can get back in, especially if you wanted to go overseas

 

[faible]

Why millions of Aussies are about to quit

If you’ve just come out of yet another stint of working from home through a lockdown, and you’re feeling both physically and mentally exhausted, you are not alone.

www.news.com.au

"The Great Resignation is about to hit Australia with millions anticipated to quit their jobs. Thinking of joining? Read this first."



Guess I missed out that those funky start up 'tech' businesses where you get to come and go as you please, play games during the day and spend your hours doing everything else that doesn't look like work were advertising millions of jobs at present.

This sounds like a massive overstatement - but if a decent percentage of it comes to fruition then it just goes to show that we're either already a lazy population or becoming one.

I do think the work:life landscape needs a rethink.

This idea that millions of people will quit their jobs and do <something> is a bit misguided though.

Where are they going to go? The jobs that all those other millions of people are leaving?

Sounds more like The Great Reshuffle to me.

 

[Poetic Justice]

I do think the work:life landscape needs a rethink.

This idea that millions of people will quit their jobs and do <something> is a bit misguided though.

Where are they going to go? The jobs that all those other millions of people are leaving?

Sounds more like The Great Reshuffle to me.

Definitely!

Also; I think the landscape does need a rethink. I run a car dealership and am struggling to find sales staff - they're required to work pretty crud hours including a Saturday and we've recently been discussing what potential changes we could make to impact work:life balance while still being able to achieve our objectives

 

[Caesar]

Sounds more like The Great Reshuffle to me.

just a different name for the same thing - bottom line, lots of people resigning, lots of workforce churn

There will be a bunch of people who leave the workforce permanently though - a lot of families having COVID babies, a lot of deferred retirements due to economic uncertainty.

I jumped ship this year to a better-paying job offering more flexibility, as have a bunch of colleagues. Jobs are changing, employee expectations are changing, businesses are changing. A lot of stuff that has been on hold for a couple of years is starting to be kicked off. This afternoon our company announced a major restructure, which is going to strip a couple of business lines and massively enhance others.

It's an interesting time, and not without opportunities.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Love to see it. Small businesses in particular enjoyed a good run there of being able to exploit young and migrant workers, until COVID hit and no one wanted to turn up to work their shitty jobs anymore. Massive strikes in America, major employee turnover, workers refusing to return to the office. This pandemic might be the turning point in allowing employees to have more control over their work/life balance.

 

[faible]

Love to see it. Small businesses in particular enjoyed a good run there of being able to exploit young and migrant workers, until COVID hit and no one wanted to turn up to work their shitty jobs anymore. Massive strikes in America, major employee turnover, workers refusing to return to the office. This pandemic might be the turning point in allowing employees to have more control over their work/life balance.

The US employment laws are vastly different to here, in the US you've got massive corporations like Amazon entirely exploiting their workforce. Much harder to get away with here on that scale.

I wouldn't mind seeing a wide-spread 4 day workweek happen, but that's not something you can drive at a company level for many industries.

 

[faible]

Definitely!

Also; I think the landscape does need a rethink. I run a car dealership and am struggling to find sales staff - they're required to work pretty crud hours including a Saturday and we've recently been discussing what potential changes we could make to impact work:life balance while still being able to achieve our objectives

Yeah, certain industries definitely don't have the flexibility of others. It suits people for car dealerships to be open on weekends to go car shopping, which means the employees have to work the weekend to provide the service.

Similarly, we expect to go out for a coffee or a meal any day, but that means hospitality staff working those hours.

 

[the_interloper]

In my industry (IT) apparently it's a job seeker's market. Having been made redundant this year I found there were a lot more jobs going than were advertised, I approached a few companies I knew and they were willing to consider it.

 

[sprockets]

Physically and mentally exhausted from working from home? LOL

 

[faible]

Physically and mentally exhausted from working from home? LOL

The mental and physical coexist, WFH has absolutely being mentally draining for everyone I know that's been doing it the last 18 months. It's also meant their work hours have bled over in to their personal time far more than was happening prior.

 

[Poetic Justice]

The mental and physical coexist, WFH has absolutely being mentally draining for everyone I know that's been doing it the last 18 months. It's also meant their work hours have bled over in to their personal time far more than was happening prior.

It's hard to picture this as a person who hasn't had to WFH. I'm not sure how it can be acceptable for anyone to be expected to do anything more than what they would normally have done. Or is it a case of them not putting in the normal work mode from 9-5 and doing non work related things at 11am or so?

 

[edgie]

Definitely!

Also; I think the landscape does need a rethink. I run a car dealership and am struggling to find sales staff - they're required to work pretty crud hours including a Saturday and we've recently been discussing what potential changes we could make to impact work:life balance while still being able to achieve our objectives

Working a Saturday every now and again is not crud hours.

Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using Tapatalk

 

[Poetic Justice]

Working a Saturday every now and again is not crud hours.

Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using Tapatalk

Sales guys work 5 days a week from 8am usually to about 6:00pm. Can often get stuck behind with a customer at times and don't usually get made up to by way of any penalty $$s or time in lieu.

 

[faible]

It's hard to picture this as a person who hasn't had to WFH. I'm not sure how it can be acceptable for anyone to be expected to do anything more than what they would normally have done. Or is it a case of them not putting in the normal work mode from 9-5 and doing non work related things at 11am or so?

I think it's a case of the line blurring and people not really being equipped to manage their time and attention well in that setting.

I've mostly heard of people struggling to switch off after work, or sitting still doing emails / tasks well in to the evening more than an expectation time-wise. So the latter.

The trade-off is that they also went for a walk to get coffee at 10:30am and did their washing.

But lack of routine is massive.

 

[Hawk Dork]

The mental and physical coexist, WFH has absolutely being mentally draining for everyone I know that's been doing it the last 18 months. It's also meant their work hours have bled over in to their personal time far more than was happening prior.

BiL hated it for the first 6 months then absolutely loved it
Will now resign just before Xmas so he doesnt have to commute again
1 week short of 6 months so he doesnt have to give 4 weeks notice

 

[faible]

BiL hated it for the first 6 months then absolutely loved it
Will now resign just before Xmas so he doesnt have to commute again
1 week short of 6 months so he doesnt have to give 4 weeks notice

Does he have anything lined up?

 

[Hawk Dork]

Does he have anything lined up?

Retiring
Has 2 farms
Rented one out lives on the other will just travel and play in his shed
He is very handy
If they can afford it my sister will resign early next year too

 

[Caesar]

Have heard really mixed opinions on working from home. People with families seem to like it more than people who live alone, but only if they have access to a quiet space (like a dedicated study).

I've really liked it. My office is quieter and better resourced than my work facilities. My work is mostly problem solving, so it really suits me to work in fits and starts - if I have a mental block at 10am, it's nice to be able to go out for an hour and get some physical exercise/decompress. Similarly if I am on a roll at 6pm, it's great to be able to sort out dinner and be back at my desk in half an hour.

If I go back to the office it will only be a day or two here and there for the social contact/networking.

I wouldn't mind seeing a wide-spread 4 day workweek happen, but that's not something you can drive at a company level for many industries.

I think some companies are starting to move there. At our company, managers approached enforced WFH in two ways. Some (generally the more old-school managers) adopted hyper-monitoring - making sure people were always online and active during work hours. Others (including my boss) went back to basics and tried to work on defining what constituted a productive level of output for their workers.

Fast forward 18 months, the managers in our organisation are so familiar with what a productive worker looks like that they are not really all that fussed about when or how you work. As long as you make meetings, are available to stakeholders and deliver at a good level you can work pretty much how you want.

I would not be at all surprised if the next move is to a four-day work week with the same productive targets. And if that happens in a bunch of companies, they will attract a lot of top industry talent. It will force other companies to make similar changes.

 

[faible]

Have heard really mixed opinions on working from home. People with families seem to like it more than people who live alone, but only if they have access to a quiet space (like a dedicated study).

I've really liked it. My office is quieter and better resourced than my work facilities. My work is mostly problem solving, so it really suits me to work in fits and starts - if I have a mental block at 10am, it's nice to be able to go out for an hour and get some physical exercise/decompress. Similarly if I am on a roll at 6pm, it's great to be able to sort out dinner and be back at my desk in half an hour.

If I go back to the office it will only be a day or two here and there for the social contact/networking.


I think some companies are starting to move there. At our company, managers approached enforced WFH in two ways. Some (generally the more old-school managers) adopted hyper-monitoring - making sure people were always online and active during work hours. Others (including my boss) went back to basics and tried to work on defining what constituted a productive level of output for their workers.

Fast forward 18 months, the managers in our organisation are so familiar with what a productive worker looks like that they are not really all that fussed about when or how you work. As long as you make meetings, are available to stakeholders and deliver at a good level you can work pretty much how you want.

I would not be at all surprised if the next move is to a four-day work week with the same productive targets. And if that happens in a bunch of companies, they will attract a lot of top industry talent. It will force other companies to make similar changes.

Yeah the forced WFH has really made a number of positive changes that I think will help long-term to give people more flexibility.

If you're producing what needs to be produced, who cares where and how you do it right?

For most people I think a minimum 1 day a week on-site is a good thing, keeps the organisation connected at a personal level, but there's no reason people can't have flexibility to do 2 / 3 / 4 days a week at home if their role and setup allows it.

I've never been a fan of the hyper-monitoring idea where they're looking at how long since your mouse cursor moved type stuff. Give someone a required outcome, and they either produce it within an appropriate period of time or they don't. Some people will sit chugging away at it for hours on end, others will come and go in fits and starts, if both get there in the time necessary, who cares which way they work?

My industry isn't really one suitable for it to happen organisation wide, but WFH has been beneficial for a few of our staff who would normally have a ~1 hour peak commute in from Werribee each direction, have suitable spaces at home, and get back a few hours of their day. They then tend to work a little longer when they're on-site 2 days a week to avoid coming in any additional days, which has the side benefit of skipping the peak-hour commute traffic to reduce the transit time.

 

[Poetic Justice]

Yeah the forced WFH has really made a number of positive changes that I think will help long-term to give people more flexibility.

If you're producing what needs to be produced, who cares where and how you do it right?

For most people I think a minimum 1 day a week on-site is a good thing, keeps the organisation connected at a personal level, but there's no reason people can't have flexibility to do 2 / 3 / 4 days a week at home if their role and setup allows it.

I've never been a fan of the hyper-monitoring idea where they're looking at how long since your mouse cursor moved type stuff. Give someone a required outcome, and they either produce it within an appropriate period of time or they don't. Some people will sit chugging away at it for hours on end, others will come and go in fits and starts, if both get there in the time necessary, who cares which way they work?

My industry isn't really one suitable for it to happen organisation wide, but WFH has been beneficial for a few of our staff who would normally have a ~1 hour peak commute in from Werribee each direction, have suitable spaces at home, and get back a few hours of their day. They then tend to work a little longer when they're on-site 2 days a week to avoid coming in any additional days, which has the side benefit of skipping the peak-hour commute traffic to reduce the transit time.

Agree with you there.

I'd love to be able to offer more flexibility but our problem is those pesky customers hah

 

[faible]

I'd love to be able to offer more flexibility but our problem is those pesky customers hah

Damn them and their dollars!

 

[Kwality]

We are awash with Business Propaganda now in the papers

About all the great opportunities if you stay with your employer or are looking for a new job

Why is it 'Business Propaganda'?