Welcome

(Or, what Corporate America doesn’t want to admit.)

Apparently, there’s nothing quite like a world-wide plague to bring up all the dirty laundry long swept under the rug for examination. Work, working from home, and “The Great Resignation” have become popular topics since 2020. 

A recent Paychex survey shows up to 80% of people who bid adieu to their corporate jobs in 2021 now regret their decision, while another from Joblist cites only 1 in 4 people regret their decision. 

Here’s the thing, regrets or not, the fact that 47 million people quit their job in 2021 speaks volumes about how the tide is turning in the corporate world. And while businesses may still have the upper hand at the moment, it’s hard to imagine this continuing much longer. 

The proverbial ship has left the harbor, the horse is out of the barn, and the cat is out of the bag: how we work is changing, like it or not. 

And it’s high time it did.

What Corporate America doesn’t want to admit, is that they initiated this movement, albeit unintentionally. 

They promote and prioritize hustle culture, making work your number one priority above all other facets of your life, layoff workers while not touching executive compensation, saddle employees with extra responsibilities and expect unwavering loyalty in return. 

When given the opportunity to make changes that actually improve their employees’ lives, like working from home, they pass it over and require everyone to schlep back to the office in the name of collaboration. 

Collaboration or control? Needing to know what your employees do every second of every day seems to suggest you either have management problems or are scared that if they aren’t amongst their co-workers all day they might figure out your so-called “amazing culture” isn’t amazing after all and jump ship. 

Or maybe it’s the steampunk industrial office space they spent millions on so they could all look like each other. Commercial leases are long and build outs are expensive. Hard to admit the expenditure wasn’t worth it so we’ll make everyone come back to the office to make ourselves feel better about our misguided decisions. 

The fact is, how we’ve worked since office jobs came into existence has really only ever benefited the companies, not the employees. While there was a period where pensions were in vogue, those days are long gone. And 401k matches are hardly a selling point, when the very companies that offer them can send the stock market, and your retirement savings, nosediving.

People have woken up to the fact that companies ask for way too much in return for too little. Annual raises of 2-3% are pitinance compared to what someone can negotiate when taking a new job opportunity. 

Now that we all know just how many jobs can be done remotely, and that companies did just fine with a remote workforce, why is someone going to stay working for you when they can go to your competitor who offer a work from home option? Also, what are the last three initiatives you implemented from in-office collaboration? My guess is…crickets…

Or, maybe they’ll go into business for themselves. It’s never been easier to freelance or set-up your own shop. Why spend 40+ hours a week and deal with a daily commute when you can earn what you made, or more, working from home in fewer hours? 

How do companies expect to retain their top talent in the long run? Having to hire and train is costly and time consuming and it seems like giving concessions, such as working from home, would stand to benefit companies in the long run. Corporate America doesn’t seem to share this opinion. They appear to be ready to die on the hill called “this is the way we’ve always done it!”

I’m a big believer that people want to work. Not necessarily in the 9-5 sense, but in that we all want to feel like we’ve been able to add our own contribution to the world. That our skills and talents are useful and that we can use them to make a positive impact. 

So the whole “nobody wants to work” sentiment that gets thrown around? Totally false. It’s that nobody wants to work for YOU. They’ve decided that the hours, pay, benefits, expectations and “culture” you have to offer isn’t enough to offset all the BS that comes with working for you. And that’s your doing Corporate America.