Written by By Stephanie Diana Eubank
So, there are a lot of articles on companies pushing for remote workers to come back to the office. Inversely we see a rise in demand for Remote Work positions. This rise in remote work has made the concept of constant turnover a norm in business as companies and management within companies push employees to come back to the office when they don’t want to. As it was pre-pandemic, the office is a thing of the past. While companies cling to the past, one concept must be asked. Where have all the workers gone?
The common narrative among leadership is that “People just don’t want to work anymore.” Extensive research on this is extremely untrue. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the jobs report shows the US unemployment rate is at 3.7%. The BLS details how remote work jobs are growing and companies that embrace it value flexibility in scheduling. Remote work post-pandemic has also come with rises in pay on average by 8% across the US, per the BLS findings. This kind of sweetens the deal for employees. Based on the math, employees work smarter, not harder, and remotely. Which is great news for the economy and for diversity in the workplace. Along with family dynamics, that’s a different post.
Then why are companies pulling back remote workers, you ask? Before COVID, companies used to do away with remote workers and teams up front as a cost-cutting method. They disguised it as a maneuver to increase (yuck) “synergy,” creativity, and productivity. Although all the stats since 2020 squash that idea. But in truth, this was done so that companies didn’t have to lay these people off as if it were a financial issue. Basically, having a layoff without having a layoff. The most notable person to do this was the CEO of Yahoo back in 2013. She was ridiculed because this adversely affected the company’s women the most. Considering Yahoo’s hardships since then, it is probably wise to tread with caution on companies that ban remote work, as that is not usually a good historical sign of healthy growth.
Another similar tactic companies have used in the past is to relocate the main office and require everyone to move to that new location and come into the office. This was for the same reasons, but with remote work, if this is done and remote work is not welcomed, I would also tread lightly like a cute fluffy animal that doesn’t look so good.
The next straw man argument given to support the idea that employees don’t want to work is always, “Well, what about Quiet Quitting?” or “Acting Your Wage”? What about it? Quiet Quitting and Acting Your Wage are both moves by employees to set healthy boundaries in the workplace. For decades we have had toxic workplaces having toxic philosophies that increase burnout and workplace PTSD that we have all had a hand in normalizing. Such as “We’re a workplace family,” which manipulates employees to work longer and harder hours, often without additional pay. Cause the things we do for family. All the while losing out on rest and time with our actual families. Which is not good for building a stable workplace. Or demanding meetings during off time and not paying for those times and the work done in those meetings. Another I dislike in a remote workplace is when leaders call at 3am your time and can’t figure out why you aren’t working on the email question they sent one minute ago. This is fine when it is legitimately an “Oops, I forgot you are in another time zone; sorry to wake you.” But, when it is followed by, “No excuse if I email you should respond immediately, I don’t care what time or time zone,” that’s not acceptable.
Also, in remote work, everything is more transparent and documented. So, toxic leaders or toxic culture gets spotted sooner in remote work. This does more work for Human Resources because no one trains leaders how to lead unless they went to college and got experience from good leaders and remote leaders are different. Remote workers need a different type of leader. You can’t be that unfeeling distant leader in a remote workplace because it is harder to bond.
We need leadership that is like a teacher. And what I mean by this is having the grace to command your classroom like a teacher. Put up with no BS and yet still be caring and sensitive. Empathetic to things remote workers miss from the onsite concept. Like bonding with coworkers and open communication. Simple acts of caring. Like calling to say “Hi.” Just to make sure everything on their end is OK. Once we remember we, as leaders, are people just like our team members, we can all spare some kindness. That doesn’t mean we need to be pushovers. It just means that leadership’s ruthless, scarcity attitudes don’t work in a remote workplace. We have all survived and seen too much during COVID.
So, Acting Your Wage and Quiet Quitting is setting boundaries to prevent burnout and workplace PTSD while demanding better from leadership.
Ultimately, employees go remotely or in-person to companies with better leadership skills. Remember, people don’t quit companies. They quit leaders.
If you found this article interesting, follow me on my social media outlets. My consulting firm also offers training for companies to help develop more effective remote leadership.
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Work Cited
Arthur, C. (2013, February 25). Yahoo chief bans working from home. The Guardian. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/feb/25/yahoo-chief-bans-working-home
Liu, J. (2022, October 7). Remote work could keep fueling high turnover: ‘the map is open for job seekers’. CNBC. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/07/remote-work-could-keep-fueling-high-turnover.html
KISLIUK, B. I. L. L. (2010, July 23). Staff changes for Bank of America. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/news/tn-gnp-xpm-2010-07-23-tn-gnp-bank-20100723-story.html
Bureau of Labor and Statistics. (2022, March 1). Telework during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Estimates Using the 2021 Business Response Survey. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2022/article/telework-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.htm#:~:text=At%20the%20time%20of%20the,involving%20teleworking%20rarely%20or%20never.
Eckstein, J. (2022, December 7). How yahoo makes money. Investopedia. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/121015/how-yahoo-makes-money-yhoo.asp#:~:text=Today%2C%20Yahoo%20exists%20as%20a,for%20Yahoo’s%20real%20clients%2C%20advertisers.
Dr. Stephanie Diana Eubank DBA Remote Team Research (AKA Dr. Bear) 