As our last two blogs have covered, employers across the nation and around the world are currently undergoing the Great Resignation Era. Company productivity and the ability to do business with the public has seriously been affected by and adjusted to correcting any employee dissatisfaction previously left unchecked or resolved.
Also being called the Great Reshuffle by some, this trend is showing, more than anything, that the issues and interests of employees matters drastically to the business world. But what has affected employee satisfaction and what have employers done to help or negate it over the past several years?
What has amplified employee dissatisfaction?
Largely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees begun to see work in a different light and chose to act on what they now feel about a proper work-life balance. According to The Business Times, on-the-job stress rose from 38 percent of those polled in 2019 to 43 percent the following year as Covid-19 upended the world of work. Utilizing a report from Gallup, they also found that women in the U.S. and Canada were facing the most pressure. That number rose further as the pandemic progressed, and employers weren’t prepared for such employee burn-out and unhappiness with the workload.
Image by Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0.
As such, many people began to become “quiet-quitters,” whether that was at an office or facility or restaurant, saying they are perfectly willing to work hard, but only for what the formal job description is supposed to entail. The motto behind quiet-quitting is rather straightforward: “act your wage.”
As described by Stefan Ellerbeck of World Economic Forum, on-the-job stress was contributed to by various factors over the course of the pandemic, with one of the largest being seeking out better pay. From a survey done by consultancy firm PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears, one in five workers globally plan to quit their current jobs in 2022. The survey was sent and filled out by more than 52,000 workers in over 40 countries and territories, and carried out in March 2022. Pay is unsurprisingly the main factor in people wanting to change to better jobs, with 71% citing it as a key reason. Job fulfillment and the ability to be one’s true self at work being ranked second and third. Likewise, many have begun to realize that they chose the wrong career path.
Interestingly, another frustration for employees has been the tumultuous and divisive social and political issues happening all over the world. As Ellerbeck explains:
While some managers may fear employees discussing sensitive and potentially divisive social and political issues at work, the survey found that 65% of workers discuss such issues with colleagues frequently or sometimes, with the number higher for younger workers (69%) and ethnic minorities (73%). The PwC report encourages employers to do more to facilitate and support these conversations.
As well, flexibility with hybrid work has also become of heightened importance to some workers. If an employer does not offer online work, or flexibility with work hours, it may negatively influence whether or not future workers may consider accepting that position.
Employees, especially those in retail, food service, and customer/office-based industries want their employer, whether future or current, to better understand how it is important to have a healthy work-life balance rather than devote all their energy and happiness to the company. Being able to afford necessary health care and insurance has become just as important in the job selection process for future workers as their mental well-being and motivation for the job being offered. Well-being has become more important to them as a result of the consistent worry or threat of being sick with the COVID-19 virus, and seeing others die as a result of it.
How have employers reacted?
With the vast amount of employees quiet-quitting their jobs, employers have been forced to react in ways that they personally saw fit. According to Katie Navarra of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), some managers are responding by using “quiet-firing” practices, as I explained in my prior post ‘What You Ought to Know About Quiet-Quitting and Firing’. According to a Resumebuilder.com survey, one in three managers are using passive-aggressive tactics to make work uncomfortable for the employee, in hopes that the “quiet-quitter” will just leave:
Quiet-firing, like quiet-quitting, is not new. A LinkedIn News poll found that 83 percent of respondents reported having faced it themselves or seen it used in the workplace. In a market where retention and staffing shortages reign, it is more critical than ever for leaders to acknowledge and avoid the behavior.
Image ‘Targeting a Market’ by Myfuture.com CC BY-ND 2.0 Flickr.
Simply put, employers who are not properly equipped to deal with burnt-out or disgruntled employees will quiet-fire them by not giving them important tasks or minimizing work advantages or benefits offered to them. The objective of quiet-firing is that they leave on their own accord, to which the employer can therefore find a more eager replacement. Furthermore, by the employee leaving on their own accord, the employer legally does not have to pay unemployment for them. If they do fire someone, then they would have to. While this may seem like a great alternative for businesses, quiet-firing is a practice that should not be encouraged as it strains relationships with burnt-out employees and may deter future individuals from applying.
As such, employee dissatisfaction is just as problematic for any business during the Great Resignation Era, or the Great Reshuffle, as quiet-quitting and firing are. It is important as an employee to comprehensively figure out what job or source of work is right for you. Likewise, it is just as important as an employer to be offering better benefits and improving the happiness of your workforce, while avoiding the practice of quiet-firing. If an employee is a quiet-quitter, do not fight fire with fire (quiet-firing), but instead learn what employees are dissatisfied with and see what you can actually do to help remedy or correct that frustration.
As always, feel free to reach out with the Contact Me tab up above for any discussion you wish to have.
Business Wellness 
