https://fortune.com/2022/10/05/remote-workers-likely-cut-first-in-layoffs-recession/
18 replies (most recent on top)
The office really sucks and I can’t see it ever improving at this point. We are what 7+ months in now and it only feels worse.
Tell us more about your lack of understanding about the costs involved with housing employees and the HR risks involved with face to face employees.
I would love to see company data on the number of HR issues (fights, se-ual harassment, claims of discrimination etc.) in-office vs WFH. All signs suggest that bring in office is the root of a lot of expensive problems.
Assuming comparable talent levels, it is only logical that a business would prefer the employee that comes into the office over the one who does not. Why is this concept so hard for the WFH clingers to understand?
If you can't find a fully remote job you aren't looking indeed has thousands
Literally no one besides maybe 1% of the company wants to come in and do the same thing they did comforting from home. Maybe the high performing losers who like to avoid their family do. I wonder what they will End up doing once the RE market crashes and / or climate change crisis cues and they’re told to WFH again lol.
The high performers want to be back it the office
RTO sucks more than ever now that the offices are packed post Labor day. While I used to blame the ghost town offices as part of the reason it was so pointless that I come in, they are now packed full of strangers and I hate it worse.
Big yawn energy for sure
As if Wells Fargo cares about retaining talent.
Yawn- remote is the future. That will not change no matter how badly the geriatric cry babies in the C suite or middle management want it to. You can’t retain talent these days without offering flexibility in the form or remote or at least hybrid work schedules. How do I know this? I am middle management.
My heart breaks for anyone who has WF Stockholm syndrome displaying their abuse anniversary cubes like it’s an accomplishment to neglect your health and needs for the sake of the corporation. All of them have sunken eyes, overweight and cough a lot. I hope they see the light eventually.
The contrast is very striking between the extent that remote work was pushed during the pandemic as “the future of employment” and how many companies are now beck pedaling on that to force RTO and even using it as a deciding factor in layoffs, etc… as much as I dislike our current management and the situation in general, it does seem like most large corporations have taken a similar approach.
If I have to come in five days a week, as I were hired to do to hold on to my job, then I will do it. It's not worth the fuss, and there just aren't a lot of remote jobs out there. Oh well.
Neither remote or in person "wins" generally, it depends on the nature of the job. If your job requires in person interaction or hands on work, being on site makes perfect sense. If it's all just collaboration via Skype/Teams/email/phone, going to a building is a waste of time, a waste of company resources, and increases risk of legal/HR drama that comes with being in-person.
Remote still wins until it doesn't and you're laid off. The issue will be are there enough remote jobs to offset and this is saying no.
Yaaaaawwwwnnnn remote still wins they can propagandize it all they want!
With the job market shrinking by over a million openings in August, many workers fear that it’s only a matter of time before mass layoffs start to hit the U.S. in a big way.
Remote workers are particularly concerned about potential layoffs. Turns out, they may have reason to worry.
Six in 10 managers say it’s more likely that remote workers will be cut first, according to a new report published Tuesday by presentation software company Beautiful.AI. The report was based on a recent survey of 3,000 managers across a wide spectrum of sectors, including health care, finance, retail, software, and construction. Another 20% of managers are on the fence as to whether remote workers are more at risk for layoffs.
The good news is that despite the grim reality that the proximity bias is still very much in effect, it’s unlikely that there will be mass layoffs across the labor market this year.
Yes, several major tech companies like Snap, Netflix, and Meta have announced layoffs in recent months while other corporations put hiring freezes in effect. Companies are pulling back on job postings, yet they’re not resorting to broad layoffs yet, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover report released Tuesday.
“This idea that the tech sector is going through mass layoffs is not playing out in the data,” says Layla O’Kane, senior economist at Lightcast.
Job openings are still at a really high mark of 10.1 million in August, down slightly from the 11.2 million in July, O’Kane notes. “Employees are still sitting in the driver’s seat, and the labor market is still pretty tight,” she tells Fortune. For context, the labor market went from having two openings per unemployed worker to about 1.7 openings per unemployed worker. So while openings are down, there still are more openings than people to fill them.
“This is not a sign that employers, by and large, have the upper hand and are feeling like they really need to tighten their belts and lay off workers,” O’Kane says. “I’m not expecting there to be mass layoffs really in any sector in the next quarter.”
Additionally, economic downturns like the one many forecast to be on the horizon affect job sectors differently. During the Great Recession in 2008, for example, jobs connected to the housing market were hard-hit right out of the gate. During the early days of the pandemic, the hospitality and travel sectors were in free fall. This downturn, however, may impact sectors that are more closely tied with interest rates such as the mortgage business and industries like tech that rely on funding.
It’s worth noting, however, that remote work is not just tied to one specific sector, nor does it encompass every aspect of the job market, O’Kane says. “I will quote one of my colleagues here: ‘You can’t pluck a chicken online.’ There are always going to be jobs that cannot be done remotely,” she says. “And as we see a potential recession play out, those might be affected differently—but it’s not only about remote sector jobs.”
For those who are concerned about job security, O’Kane says it’s worth brushing up on your skill set. Skills that she expects will continue to be in really high demand are those that are transferable across jobs and even different sectors.
Things like digital skills, social media–related experience, and data visualization experience are very much in demand right now, she says. But human skills—communication, collaboration—even in technical roles, can be extremely valuable, too. “These are skills that employers are increasingly saying are important,” O’Kane says.
And many remote workers have these skills in spades. “They have those digital skills as often because that’s what enables them to do their jobs remotely,” she adds. “And they often have to work harder in communication and collaboration because they are working remotely.”
So in the end, despite being perhaps more vulnerable to layoff risks, remote workers may find it easier to get rehired as well.