#employers #employees #WorkFromHome #WorkRemotely #workplaces
An office building in downtown Atlanta is going into foreclosure.
Companies want their employees who’ve been working remotely to come back to their workplaces, but many employees don’t want to.
Working from home has many advantages. Given the high gasoline prices today, cars parked or garaged at home are not using gasoline.
Since the pandemic forced a lot of child-care operations out of business, parents can work AND care for children from home. That’s money in their pockets.
Many workers have set up nice, comfortable workspaces in their home offices. They may not want to go back to the dingy, cold cubicles in their company’s workplace.
It’s clear why the companies want people back to their workplaces. They are paying for space that isn’t occupied. They want an easier way to observe what their workers are doing, how they are doing it etc. They don’t want workers distracted by home life.
The employers also want to rebuild team cohesiveness. That’s tough to do on Zoom, or some other remote communication.
But the workers have every reason to like working from home. If for no other reason, it gives THEM more control over their lives. It’s not that they, in most cases, want to be lazy, not do what they are supposed to and still get paid because no one is watching.
Let’s face it. Going to work is expensive. Commuting, day care, lunch in the cafeteria all costs money.
Any worker who is able to work remotely and save those costs will want to keep doing it.
Sure, they may miss the interaction with coworkers. They may miss happy hour at the end of the week. They may miss the retirement parties and other office gatherings, though they certainly can come into work on those days.
Bottom line is workers want options. Companies may lose good people if they take those options away entirely.
In this labor market, companies need to be very careful. Good workers are in demand, whether they work from home or not.
They will go where they will be treated best.
Of course, some workers don’t have the option to work from home. They have to make things, repair things, serve things and greet customers, which they can’t do from home.
But companies that force the issue of coming back to the workplace may discover that workers will rebel.
If they want the workers to come back, they will need to lure them back with some sort of incentive, be it money or something at the workplace that will make their cozy home offices less attractive.
It’s not necessarily an easy choice for employers or employees whether to go back to the office.
But options are always good to have, especially for workers.
Peter
Tag Archives: workplaces
WORKPLACES ARE CHANGING; WORKERS’ ATTITUDES ARE, TOO
#workplaces #workers #pay #benefits #childcare #COVID19 #coronavirus #FlattenTheCurve
The pandemic changed everything.
First, it gave workers a bit more leverage in how they deal with work/life balance.
That has good, and bad, effects.
Workers are leaving jobs that paid little, with no flexibility in their lives, to either stay home with children – day-care costs are rising and options are limited – or moving on to jobs that pay more and, perhaps, offer some of the flexibility they want.
A story by Marc Fisher for the Washington Post, and a “This Life” column by Nedra Rhone tackle this issue in detail. Both were published Dec. 30, 2021, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Post story focuses on Liberty County, Ga., along the state’s coast. Liberty is a small county, with a major military institution, Ft. Stewart, as its biggest employer.
But the county is growing by adding big warehouses. These allow people to leave the small, mom-and-pop hotel and restaurant jobs for higher-paying, and often more flexible, warehouse work.
That hurts the lower-paying sole-owner businesses, causing them to cut back on hours, service etc., for lack of help.
Some employees had been laid off when many of these operations shut down. When they reopened, many of the workers did not return, for various reasons – not the least of which is the risk of being infected with COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Rhone’s column discusses the differences among various generations in how they react to changing workplaces.
The youngest generation of workers had their world turned upside down. Many now want to be entrepreneurs, meaning they may never work for anyone but themselves in their lives.
(What these young folks may not realize is that working only for oneself may have its own pitfalls. They still have to serve clients, who will be their ultimate employers).
So, all of this begs the usual question: where do you fit in this changing workplace?
Is the idea of going back to work too risky? Or, is it going to cost you more to go back to work (commuting, day care etc.) than you would make?
In summary, workplaces are changing. Workers no longer feel forced to take, or go back to, jobs that put them at risk, will cost them more to work than not, and not get a good return from the employer(s).
Employers currently are adapting by cutting back on things that could decimate their businesses. They have to find more creative ways to entice people from multiple generations, who have different hopes, dreams and attitudes toward the workplace.
To quote Donald Lovette, chairman of the Liberty County, Ga., Commission, from the Post story: “It’s not that people are lazy. It’s that some of them are better off financially by not paying for child care, staying home for a while … It’s simple economics.”
Employers, even those in basic businesses like hospitality and restaurants, have to come up with new ways to get and keep workers.
Peter
JOB MARKET FAVORS WORKERS THESE DAYS
#coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve #workforce #QuittingYourJob #workplaces #jobs
The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot about our attitudes toward our jobs or workplaces.
But, as Tom Baxter, columnist for the Atlanta-based Saporta Report, puts it: it’s been a long time coming.
Baxter categorizes the explanations for the high availability of jobs and the relatively high level of unemployment as ”low end” and “high end,” in his column published Oct. 11, 2021.
Low end: There is too much in federal benefits, so people get used to being on the dole.
High end: Workers are more thoughtful about what they want to do with their lives.
We’re starting to see more strikes, or threatened strikes, by unionized auto workers at John Deere and behind-the- scenes movie and TV workers at production companies. The movie production folks settled their dispute with the studios this past weekend.
Baxter argues that much of the so-called Great Resignation is actually ambitious people moving from one job to another, because they now have the flexibility to do so.
He explains that just-in-time manufacturing – allowing companies not to have to store inventory for a long time – and outsourcing – having gig workers and other companies handle chores that employees used to do – has led to what the pandemic unleashed.
These things led to greater job insecurity, reduced or eliminated benefits etc. So, if a gig worker does what you used to do, then become a gig worker. Baxter says many such workers are getting used to unsteady paychecks and no benefits – which they probably weren’t getting anyway as employees.
Job security has long been a thing of the past. People go into work every day not knowing when the next reorganization will eliminate their jobs. At least, with the frequency that it happens, people should be more prepared for it. That doesn’t mean it still won’t be a shock.
Baxter also points out that the stay-at-home spouse, with the other working, is also becoming a trend – again. The roles may be distributed differently between men and women now, but they are happening.
The column predicts that a combination of higher wages, economic necessity and workplace innovation eventually will draw some back to the job market, if they had left it by choice.
“Many of them will be better off for taking their time, and so will the businesses that hire them,” Baxter writes.
What he doesn’t point out is that there are many other programs out there that enable people to devote a few, part-time, off-job hours a week to potentially earn more money than they could make in their jobs.
No specific education, experience or background is required to take advantage of these. In short, anyone can do them.
The only two requirements: be open to looking at them if you are presented with them, and, if you decide one of them is for you, find the few hours you will need to work at them. As a bonus, you’ll get to help others do the same thing.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
Things are looking relatively bright for labor at the moment. Certainly, we are all paying more for what we buy, but that may be a good trade-off to get workers higher pay , more benefits and more flexibility between work and life.
Employers are indeed competing for help. But, if you give the right people what they want and deserve, ultimately you will have no problem finding them.
Workers can pick and choose more freely what they do, and where they do it. Consider as many options as possible before choosing.
Both employers and employees should choose wisely.
Peter
WORK SHIFTS: PART 2
#work #workplaces #jobs #coronavirus #COVID19 #FlattenTheCurve
Brigid Schulte believes the workplace – at least office workplaces – should not go back to the way they were before the coronavirus pandemic.
Schulte, director of the Better Life Lab at New America, was interviewed by Henry Grabar in an article for Future Tense, published July 13, 2021.
Work, before the pandemic, really didn’t work for most people, she tells the reporter.
It encroached more and more on people’s lives. Some workers, including many so-called essential workers, were underpaid for the necessary work they did.
Others were asked to work more and more hours, taking more family and leisure time away from them, she said in the article.
With the advent of the pandemic, some workers spent more time at home, and started to realize what they were missing, the article points out.
Another issue: child care. With parents at home during the pandemic, they were worker, caregiver and teacher aide to their kids. Now, with the pandemic forcing many day-care and other services for children to close, that limits the options, particularly for women, the article points out.
What you now have is a care crisis, Schulte says in the article. That puts a heavy burden on women.
Then, there is the issue of career advancement. Schulte says that people who work in front of their bosses, or at least where their bosses can see them, can help advance their careers. They can at least give the appearance of being industrious, and, therefore, get noticed.
Those who work from home may produce good work, but it may make it harder to judge someone you don’t see in action very often, she said in the article.
The article talks about digital nomads, people traveling, looking for suitable wireless signals and doing their work while having a good time on the road.
“I think it’s too early to say that digital nomads are a red herring. I think it’s just really going to depend on the cultures that develop and what they allow, what they value, and ultimately what they end up rewarding. Because if you’re a digital nomad, but you keep missing promotions and you’re not getting pay bonuses and you’re not valued, well, I can imagine you’re going to get the message that even though the policy says you can do it, if it’s not working out in practice, you’re going to run right back to the office,” the article quotes Schulte.
So how do you fit in to these scenarios? Is your employer making you come back to the office, because, after all, he’s paying for that space? Or, is the employer allowing you the flexibility you want, without penalizing you, and, perhaps, even rewarding you?
If you are in the latter category, good for you. If not, you may want to rethink what you want to do with the rest of your life.
Fortunately, there are several programs that allow you not only to work from home OR outside the home, but also can perhaps give you a potential income that could dwarf what you are making dealing with all these obstacles.
And, you don’t have to quit your job. You can do these with only a few, part-time, off work hours a week to start. No specific education, experience or background is needed.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
You’ll probably read and hear a lot more about workplace changes – the good, the bad and the ugly – over many years. Try to analyze them and work to make them compatible with your own situation. You can’t do anything about some things, but you probably can do some things that make everything work out for you.
Peter
LONLINESS IN THE WORKPLACE CAN BE QUANTIFIED
#LonelinessInTheWorkplace #loneliness #workplaces #SolitaryJobs
Some people are lonely at work.
So what? Who cares?
Well, loneliness has a cost to employers, according to an article by Danielle Paquette for the Washington Post. It was also published March 31, 2018, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“According to researchers who study the issue, the economic damage caused when employees suffer feelings of isolation could soon worsen as offices become increasingly automated and more people work remotely,” Paquette writes.
“Employers who tackle the issue now – rather than brush it off as a personal matter – will save money in (the) future,” Paquette quotes Gabriella Rosen Kellerman, a psychiatrist and chief innovation officer for BetterUp, a workplace consulting firm in San Francisco.
According to the article, Kellerman’s team crunched data from a survey of about 1,600workers across the country to better understand the risk by profession. The results, published in the Harvard Business Review, alarmed Kellerman: “Sixty-one percent of the lawyers in her sample ranked ‘above average’ on the loneliness scale from UCLA,” Paquette quotes Kellerman.
“Generally, the happiest – and most productive – workers feel like valued team members,” Paquette quotes Kellerman.
So, are you feeling lonely at work? Do you often – or always – work by yourself? Do you get to talk to anyone during your work time? Does your employer ONLY care about what you do, rather than who you are?
What if someone could show you a way to make money that would essentially REQUIRE you to interact with people. What if someone could show you a way that could not just potentially put extra money in your pocket, but also potentially exceed your current income? And, what if someone could show you a system in which advancement depended on how many people you helped succeed? To learn about such a vehicle, message me.
The article quotes a Gallup poll that found 42 percent of working Americans said they did some of their job remotely, a four-percentage-point jump from 2012. It also quotes a recent study from the global consultancy firm McKinsey, which predicted that demand for office workers in the U.S. will drop by 20 percent over the next decade because of technological advances. That could mean smaller or more siloed teams, it said.
So if loneliness at work has a grip on you, get a grip. Look for a situation that will allow you more interpersonal interaction. Oh sure, dealing with people can be a pain. But, as the article says, the alternative not only takes a toll on workers, but is costly to employers in terms of productivity.
The proverbial water cooler, cafeteria or other workplace gathering spots may be going out of favor. Try making it a point of sticking your head into someone’s workplace every day, just to see whether they are receptive to people.
Who knows? Maybe you can find people with common interests that you never knew had the same interests as you. Perhaps you can become friends and socialize outside of work, if it’s not possible to socialize at work.
If you are an employer, you might look at ways to conduct team-building exercises, personal growth seminars etc., for the folks that have solitary jobs. You may get a lot more productivity from them by doing that.
Peter
DON’T JUST FIND HAPPINESS; CREATE IT!
#happiness #CreateHappiness #optimism
Happiness doesn’t just happen.
It is created.
Sometimes, as author Ellen Petry Leanse tells us, we have to hack our brains to create happiness.
She discusses the topic in her book, “The Happiness Hack.”
She writes that we have to overcome distractions, create real connections, find more calm and master new habits.
Though technology has many benefits, it also creates many distractions, she writes.
It’s been said that some people aren’t happy unless they are miserable.
Workplaces are filled with people who constantly complain, and try to drag happy people into their pity pots.
There’s more gloom and doom out there than most people can stand. Some take vacations from social media to get a break from it.
Part of being happy is being optimistic. It’s also appreciating the good we all have in our lives.
Certainly, circumstances will knock us off course. We may experience illness, death of someone close to us, economic hardship etc. But we have to fight to overcome circumstances and regain our happiness.
We all can think of things we would like to have to enhance our happiness. Yet, not having those things immediately should not deter us from appreciating the good things we already have.
Perhaps our circumstances are such that we believe we are not where we think we should be. If your economic circumstances are that way, and if you are willing to look at a different path, message me.
Leanse uses in her book a quote from an unknown source that says, “ When I was in grade school, they told me to write down what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment. I told them they didn’t understand life.”
Such wisdom is rare among grade-school pupils. Yet the idea is spot on.
We all have different definitions of happiness. Some can find happiness no matter the situation. Others can find despair even when their lives are quite good.
No matter what makes you happy, look for it. Find it. Perhaps you don’t know what will make you happy. That’s no reason not to look for it.
Don’t just look for it. Create it. Look at all the positives around you. Don’t let the negatives, or negative people, affect you.
If you have a job, find things about that job, no matter what they are, that you like about it. Focus on those things. Certainly, there are tasks we must do that don’t create happiness, but one can push through those to focus on what makes us happy.
The distractions will come, as Leanse points out. But don’t let those distractions taint your overall happiness. Happiness is not just there for the taking, it’s there for the creating.
Peter
GENDER ROLES CHANGING IN WORKPLACE
#workplaces #GenderRoles #WomensJobs #MensJobs
More men are expected to be attracted to “women’s jobs” in the coming years.
However, the reverse is not proving to be a trend.
That’s according to research by Jed Kolko, economist at the job-search site Indeed. His study was quoted in an article by Ana Swanson in the Washington Post. It was also published in the April 23, 2017, edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Kolko concludes that less-educated men may especially face challenges in the job market of the future, the article says.
“In recent decades, fields that are dominated by men and by women have not fared equally. Many men have fallen out of work as increased mechanization has allowed the U.S. to produce more agricultural and manufacturing goods than ever, with fewer people than before,” the article says.
“Jobs that are dominated by women are projected to grow nearly twice as fast as jobs that are dominated by men,” the article quotes the Kolko study, based on figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Fast-growing ‘male’ jobs that require lots of education don’t really help men without a college degree who have been in traditionally ‘male’ jobs,” the article quotes Kolko.
We all have an idea what a “male” job – construction, manufacturing, mining, farming etc. –or a “female job” – nursing, administrative assistant, etc. –is. The article says that computer programming was once dominated by women, but is now heavily male.
It’s been reported many times that men fared worse in the Great Recession than women. The good jobs done largely by men went away more quickly than those done mostly by women.
Kolko points out that some “female” jobs, such as telephone operaters and textile workers, also have been automated out, according to the article.
The broader trend is away from manufacturing and more toward services, which could draw men into jobs traditionally dominated by women, the article says.
So let’s step back and examine this. Good jobs in general are disappearing quickly. Lots of folks, if they are lucky to find new jobs, generally are getting paid less than their previous jobs paid them. Many are not using the skills they were trained for. Those skills, largely, are being replaced by machines. There’s nothing a person can do to stop that!
But what a person CAN do is think about other ways to make money. There are many such vehicles out there for those willing to step out of what’s comfortable, and look at something different. To learn about one of the best such vehicles, message me.
The economy, the recession, downsizing – however you wish to think about it – is not something that will, or can, go away. So, if such circumstances hit you, don’t beat yourself up. Sure, those circumstances will hurt, but by further beating yourself, the pain will be worse.
Americans can be very resilient. Sometimes, tough circumstances require bold action. Sometimes, one has to think differently to better himself.
If you view yourself as a hard-working person, and most do, don’t expect someone to give you something. You may have to look for other opportunities, perhaps completely unrelated to what you’ve done before.
So whether you’ve been doing a “male” job, or a “female” job, and it has gone away, remember that someone you know, or may not yet know, may introduce you to something you may have never heard of. Listen. Don’t dismiss it out of hand. You could be hearing about the light at the end of your tunnel.
Peter
LEADERSHIP AND OZ: BRAIN, HEART, COURAGE
#TheWizardofOz #leadership #workplaces
Even if you’ve read the book or seen the movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” you may not realize that it offers great lessons in leadership.
Workplace expert BJ Gallagher brings some of those lessons to light in her book, “The Leadership Secrets of Oz: Strategies From Great and Powerful to Flying Monkeys – Unleash Some Magic in Your Management.”
Using actual lines from the book and/or movie, Gallagher addresses how one can build brains, heed your heart and cultivate courage.
To jog one’s memory, Dorothy and her three sidekicks were looking to Oz to provide each with the one thing they thought they lacked. The point is that they didn’t lack that characteristic at all. The wizard helped give them the perspective they needed to see that they indeed had what they needed all along.
Sometimes, when we think we don’t have something, or believe we can never find that one thing that we believe will put us over the top, often it is our perspective that is lacking, as Andy Andrews often writes and speaks about.
Have you ever heard someone say, “if I just had a …, I could do …?”
Perhaps what they don’t have is money. They may have a job, but perhaps live paycheck to paycheck. Perhaps they are overwhelmed with debt.
Perhaps they really want something – a nice car, for example – but believe it takes the money they don’t have to get it.
There are many ways to get money while still working that job that doesn’t pay enough, in a person’s mind.
First: spend less and save more. It’s old advice, but still applicable today. If you are young, you can get your nice car, if that’s your dream, but perhaps not right away. If you skip, say, one trip to the coffee shop every day, and saved the money you would otherwise spend there, eventually you’ll have the money put away for that car. Better yet, buy a container that will keep your coffee hot for a long time, make your own coffee, skip the coffee shop altogether and save what you would have spent there. You’ll be driving those dream wheels even sooner.
By the way, while saving for the car, put a few bucks into an account for your retirement. You never know when the day will come that your job will go away. The more and the longer you can save, as well as invest wisely with good trusted advice, the bigger your smile will be when your job eventually goes away.
Second: take a second job or, better yet, use a few non-working hours to help generate an income that could be even better than that from a second job. Maybe it could even outpace your main income source. There are many such vehicles out to help you do that. To check out one of the best, message me.
One can dictate his own future by the right perspective on each circumstance. The Oz characters came to realize that what they lacked was not lacking at all. They simply lacked the perspective that could help them better see what they had.
We all make choices. We all have circumstances. Sometimes, seeing opportunity amid catastrophe requires merely a new perspective. Sometimes, looking at other ways to do things that may be different from what you are used to can turn catastrophe into a dream come true.
Peter
HOW DOES CHANGE GO DOWN WHERE YOU WORK?
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” African proverb
#change #workplaces #innovation
The workplace can be cruel.
It can also be awesome.
Are you the type that is eager to go to work? Perhaps you are the type that isn’t eager for the commute, or some other extraneous issues, but are happy to be at work once you arrive.
Perhaps you are there for the paycheck only. Paychecks are very nice, but you spend lots of your life earning it, so it would be best to find something good, other than a paycheck, at your workplace.
Your attitude toward work may be a reflection of the management where you work. Is the culture one of collaboration, competition or coercion?
Bob Nelson, author of “1501 Ways to Reward Employees” has followed up that work with “Companies Don’t Succeed, People Do.”
The book is a primer on how to create a work atmosphere at which people feel valued, have power, autonomy and are allowed – actually encouraged — to innovate.
Does this describe where you work? Some employers are old school. They believe a successful organization in one in which employees compete with each other, fear failure and feel almost enslaved by what is probably a measly paycheck.
The newer organizations, the ones Nelson praises, have cultures that think outside that old-school box. They offer employees creative time to find better ways to do things. In turn, the employees work well with each other, find teams in which members have complementary skills and have departments that work together, not compete for credit or blame.
Management in these new organizations are constantly looking for ways to reward collaborative behavior, instead of finding ways to punish.
In organizations like the ones described in Nelson’s book, there are very few levels of employees. Those who work there seldom need permission to do something beneficial. Those who work there have a common goal, understand that goal and do what THEY feel they need to do to best carry out the goal.
In these organizations, change is easier to accomplish because the employees have a clear understanding of the need for change, and do what they must to make it happen.
In old-school organizations, change is difficult because there are too many layers of employees. Some of those employees get hurt as a result of the change, making it even more difficult.
If you work in an old-school organization, and need a way to get out — probably before you are asked to go – visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You’ll see a fresh organization in which people are rewarded for helping others succeed.
Some organizations and some managers are resistant to change. They fear empowering employees because it will hurt THEM – not the employees. For those organizations, when change has to come, there is anguish, anxiousness and real fear of loss. Good people often pay a steep price for that change.
If you believe change is coming where you work, and you fear it will not be for the better for you, take charge. Find that Plan B before you have to. There are many good ones out there, for those who want more control in their lives.
If you work in one of those flat, dynamic organizations, be thankful. However, change could still come up to bite you, so have your Plan B ready to go.
Peter