from the regrets-I've-had-a-few-but-then-again-too-few-to-mention dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Despite an extremely low unemployment rate in first half of 2022, job seekers are bracing for conditions to worsen in light of growing concerns about inflation, gas prices, and a potential recession, according to a new survey by job search platform Joblist.
The survey showed 80% of those seeking jobs expect the US to enter a recession in the next year and 49% anticipate that the job market will get worse over the next six months. As a result, 60% of job seekers feel more urgency to find a job now before market conditions change.
Notably, one in four (26%) who quit their previous job during the Great Resignation now say they regret the decision, and 42% say their new job has not lived up to their expectations.
As regret sets in, 17% of respondents indicated they would go back to their old job and another 24% said they’re at least open to returning. And 23% indicated their former employer has reached out to them about coming back, according the Q2 US Job Market Report from Joblist. (The company conducted five surveys in April, May, and June involving 15,158 US respondents.)
Even so, 78% of job seekers surveyed by the company still believe they can make more money by switching organizations.
“Do some people regret changing jobs? Of course they do. Buyer's remorse is a fact,” said Lisa Rowan, a vice president for human resources software and services research at IDC. “[But] I think the cases mentioned [in Joblist’s survey] are being a bit overblown.”
Retaining tech talent and attracting new employees remains a top concern among upper management, according to Rowan. She compared IDC’s HR Decision-Maker Survey from 2021 and this year's recently completed survey and found little difference between the two in terms of talent attraction.
“In my view, the Great Resignation is still occurring," she said. "To put on my fortuneteller’s glasses, I think the resignations may begin to slow down later this year, but they have not yet. As inflation continues to rise unabated, some businesses will suffer and perhaps start curtailing hiring. That will bring about a slowdown in job changing.”
The number of workers quitting over the past year has remained relatively steady at more than four million each month, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[...] “Job seekers are worried that a recession is coming and are feeling more urgency now to find jobs before conditions change,” Kevin Harrington, CEO of Joblist, said in the report. “So far, the market is proving mostly resilient, despite these job seeker concerns. Hopefully that trend continues in the months ahead.”
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 20 2022, @12:02AM (14 children)
>42% say their new job has not lived up to their expectations.
So 58%, more than half, got what they were expecting or better.
> one in four (26%) who quit their previous job during the Great Resignation now say they regret the decision
And nearly three in four have no regrets?
Any new job is a craps shoot, and taking into account the house cut, your odds of taking a blind leap and coming out better are less than 50/50 overall.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday July 20 2022, @12:50AM (9 children)
It depends on how you define "coming out better".
If you are in a job that makes you miserable, you're probably better off leaving even if you make less money. You'll be likely to avoid health issues deriving from the constant stress of a bad job. It might take some adjustment in your style of living, but you will feel better off in the long run.
If you quit a decent job just because you thought you could get away with not working as hard, you'll probably regret it, especially if forced to take a bad job later to get by.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 20 2022, @01:41AM (8 children)
Accepting all of that as solid fact, I reach the conclusion that the majority of the Great Resignation participants were pretty miserable in the jobs they quit.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:06AM (7 children)
Yes.
My regret is much more the opposite direction, for staying with terrible, stressful jobs from Hell, until the train wrecked. No points for loyalty for that, all you get for sticking around and trying is more blame. Mind, seeing up close the mangled, smoking, wrecked ruins of those derailed trains was of some value, in confirming beyond all doubt that, yes, reality does eventually catch up to all the slave driving, bullying, treacherous b.s. artists. When you see them get away with it time and time again, while others take the fall, you do begin to wonder.
But it would've been better to have quit. Hindsight, yes, but well before the end, there was ample evidence things weren't going well and weren't going to end well. Also, merely being present empowers the bad actors. I should've fired those horrible team members and bosses a lot sooner, and if that had resulted in them losing their own jobs when unable to explain why turnover was so high, I'd be doing everyone a favor. Or, stood up to them, and dared them to fire me. And if they did, then good! But I was a believer in the scary urban legend that being fired was a career killing black mark on your record. Money, too, was a worry. I had some money saved up, but nowhere near enough to retire on. Very hard to put a paycheck on the line. Easy to say "reach down and find a pair" to someone else, but when it's you, then you find out just how hard that can be. I dreaded having to hunt for a job, knowing that I wasn't much good at that. Performing well in an interview is a black art. The biggest factor is how badly they need people. They all pretend to hire based on merit, but how awesomely skilled you are is not what's most important. If the boss has a nephew who needs that position you think you qualify for, you don't stand a chance. If the economy has just tanked, your job prospects are poor. Not good to be job hunting in 2002, just after the dot-com crash, or 2008 in the depths of the Great Recession.
So, yeah, no accident that the Great Resignation happened now, when unemployment reached lows it hadn't seen in a decade or two, and employers' holds based on fear were much weakened. Lot of pent up misery could finally be acted upon. All in all, I think it very good for everyone. One of the nasty little holds I think complete b.s., and which was used on me, was that clause in the employment contract that if you didn't stay at least a year at your new location, you'd have to pay back moving expenses. Another hold was retirement funding. The longer you stay, the better your retirement package is, above and beyond the accumulation from time. Then there's health insurance, of course. Painfully obvious that the whole system is designed to massively favor employers and discourage job hopping.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:43AM (6 children)
Welcome to employers who aren't completely stupid. Of course, they'll look for carrot/sticks that discourage you from leaving. It's up to you to decide whether that's worth staying for.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday July 22 2022, @06:39AM (5 children)
Amazing how many miss the lessons of the Civil War, and many other wars. Despite rough parity in land area, the Confederacy was far weaker than the Union, and a big reason why was the slave economy.
Carrot and stick management is an insulting and foolish way to deal with highly skilled team members.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 22 2022, @11:58AM (4 children)
Why? I think it's telling that turgid complained how effective it was. Maybe insulting, but not foolish.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday July 22 2022, @03:57PM (3 children)
People are not poodles. Some managers are so stupid as to think carrot and stick works great, when actually, what happened is that the workers, offended though they were, took it in silence. And that because the employer has done all they can to make workers dependent and risk averse. Do you think for one minute that workers don't know this game, and resent it mightily? If the workplace is really bad, no one will check the bosses when they do something stupid. No one will dare or care. A team needs that.
There's more. We've all heard "power corrupts". Management that spends time and effort strengthening their holds over employees is not only wasting resources, pursuing goals of dubious value, where it works they end up with too much power that is too easily abused. And they do. Sexual harassment. Humiliation. Some sickos get a real kick out of making the chief engineer fetch and carry for them. They aren't grasping for power so they can do more good, oh no! What are the employees who can't afford to quit to do when the manager vents on them? Unfairly blames them for the latest costly mistake? Pressures them to work unpaid overtime? Such conditions of lopsided power aren't healthy for anyone, not even the bosses. What you get is a workplace that isn't much different from a cult. The leader gets so full of himself that he seriously thinks his "children" couldn't possibly manage without him. One workplace I was in, though all male, the manager liked to call us "ladies", and we all knew he meant it in a derogatory way. As in, "pussies". One morning just before the start of the workday, one of my coworkers was in the parking lot talking with a fellow employee, and our manager's boss decided to play a mean prank on him. The boss had a Lexus, a very quiet car, and he used this to drive up behind, slowly, until he bumped my colleague. Got him in the back of the knees with the front bumper, and he fell over onto the hood. Soon as everyone was inside, that boss came running down to tell our manager, "I got one of your guys good! Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!" Our manager didn't object, oh no, he went along with it. "Ha! Ha! You so funny, boss!" The S.O.B. should've been fired, and hauled off to jail for vehicular assault. But no, no consequences. Everyone heard about it, and there was not one protest. No one stood up to say, "that was wrong". That's the kind of sickness that severe imbalances of power enable and even promote. Among the most severe cases was the antebellum South. The whole damned society propagandized that Africans were inferior and deserved and even needed to be enslaved.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 23 2022, @12:07AM (2 children)
you are included in that "no one". I presume you moved on quickly after that though.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday July 23 2022, @04:49PM (1 child)
Then uninclude me. It was water under the bridge by the time I heard about the car-bumper-to-the-back-of-the-knees incident, from the victim. Happened a few weeks before I started working there. Not knowing the lay of the land, I wasn't about to make a big stink. Suppose, for instance, that my coworker was the liar, and just made the whole thing up? One of those tall tale workplace jokes, sucker the new guy. Am I to go storming into the boss's office to confront him about this alleged incident? Probably would've been fired on the spot. Took time to establish the credibility of the story. Yes, it was true. Even then, why is it my responsibility to do anything? I'll support groups who will stand up for themselves, but I won't stand up all alone for those who not only take things lying down, but go along with whatever false narrative excuses the powerful abuser and maybe even shifts blame onto the victims.
Yes, I did move on. At the end of my first year there, the manager stupidly tried his scary threats and bull on me, and, to his great surprise, I walked. He even made out that it was Bad that I hadn't bought a new car and therefore didn't have car payments and could more easily afford to leave, making me a flight risk. I mean, if he actually didn't want to get rid of me, why make sure I know how easily I can afford to leave? But that's a minor stupidity that pales next to the much greater stupidity of whining that I haven't made myself into a properly dependent wage slave whose life will fall apart if I miss so much as one paycheck, euphemistically called "not showing commitment" or "reliability".
Couple years later, I heard that the boss had finally been fired, for sexual harassment. The women were braver than the men.
> most workplaces just aren't like that
Now this is a point on which I'd like more data. Are you correct in your belief that most workplaces are fairly run? When I left, another of my coworkers asked why was I leaving? He said there was no point in leaving, because it is the same everywhere else. He certainly wouldn't agree with your assertion. I told him that he might be right, but I hoped he wasn't and that I had to try. Also, again, "power corrupts". When there is a large power imbalance between management and employees, it breeds abuse. And, from what I read, the power balance was pretty good up through the 1960s, and only tilted decisively towards management beginning in the 1970s. My own personal experiences are of course only anecdotes, but everything I've seen suggests that the view of management having become too powerful and become abusive with that power, is correct for the majority of organizations.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 23 2022, @11:33PM
Well, I can say that I've bounced around a dozen workplaces and seen a bunch more. There were plenty of delusional and mildly sociopathic workplaces. I've heard of a few as bad as your story that bad in various ways, but they weren't that common.
But maybe you're in a business sector that lends itself to sociopathy?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:23PM (1 child)
Those are incredibly great numbers! Damn near 75% are happy about their move.
Contrast that with the tone of the article.....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 21 2022, @12:42PM
It reads like something someone with a marketing background would write.
(Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @11:03PM (1 child)
I came here to say exactly this!
Sensationalised reporting trying to weave a particular storyline and making a hash of it by focussing on minority percentage statistics. It’s garbage. This is what Murdoch newspapers usually do.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 20 2022, @11:38PM
And when people eat it up, that tells you quite a bit about those people. But faux news and others will pick bits of the story, stripping all important caveats, and just read what gets them happy in their one way presentations to their willing audiences.
I'm especially impressed by stories written and published by Steve Forbes purporting to tell me what is in my best financial and moral interest, particularly the evils of UBI. He's a smart and very well informed man, which convinces me all the more that Americans not in the top 10-20% wealth bracket should be pushing for that change harder than anything else on the political agendae.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2022, @12:38AM (15 children)
To cherry pick one of the "scares" in the beginning of TFS...gasoline prices here are falling now. Some places are already below USD $4 / US Gallon.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/energy/gas-less-than-4-dollars-a-gallon/index.html [cnn.com]
Personally, I'm not so scared about inflation either.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 20 2022, @12:58AM (14 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2022, @01:10AM (2 children)
Nah, much too early for the November elections.
Q for SN: How far back do US voters think, on average.
My guess is not much more than a month. In other words, if things have been OK for a month they are unlikely to change their vote from whatever they habitually vote.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday July 20 2022, @01:23AM (1 child)
The US economy doesn't turn on a dime. You can't fire up a decent month on the spur of the moment. Lower fuel prices would take some months to have a politically useful effect.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:29PM
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that a month is exactly how long gas prices have been falling for!
Kidding though, considering "recession" is specifically defined as a market slowdown that lasts a certain period of time. (something like two or three months?)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Wednesday July 20 2022, @02:16AM (10 children)
What, specifically do you mean by "economic shenaningans"?
Are you implying that somehow a particular US political party can control the global petroleum market, or at least force US gasoline distributors to lower prices?
What sort of leverage would be required for the Democratic Party to be able to do that?
Especially since the US petroleum industry is and has been vocally conservative for decades.
Please, do tell. This ought to be amusing.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 20 2022, @02:34AM (7 children)
Indeed. There are several ways off the top of my head: 1) open up the strategic reserve and sell oil on the US market, 2) bribe/force US gasoline distributors to lower price, or 3) bribe Saudi Arabia to produce more. Keep in mind that the US government has three trillion in revenue and borrows even more. It can also engage in political or regulatory quid pro quo. It has plenty of wealth and power to do this. The global petroleum market doesn't need to be controlled, much less controlled for an extended length of time. There are plenty of ways to manipulate markets which can last a few months.
(Score: 3, Touché) by NotSanguine on Wednesday July 20 2022, @02:55AM (6 children)
Already being done [nypost.com], with no real impact on gas prices. I'd add that the entire release is less than 10 days supply [eia.gov] released over six months.
A better point is, how is this "economic shenanigans"? This is *exactly* the type of situation that the strategic petroleum reserve is supposed to address -- even though it isn't really working.
What leverage does the Democratic Party, or even the US government have to use to do this?
What evidence do you have that any effort beyond asking (well, begging and pleading really) has been going on?
Given the current political environment and the large numbers of folks who would have to be involved, how could that possibly be kept quiet? Not a chance.
I guess you haven't been following the news. Saudi Arabia just told the US they weren't going to increase production or encourage other OPEC members to do so either, after Biden went to Riyadh on bended knee last week to beg for it.
If you're going to concoct a conspiracy theory, you could at least try to make it plausible.
Geez Louise!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:38AM (1 child)
Why? Is there an actual shortage going on? And yes, I consider this sort of use an economic shenanigan.
Aside from the vast leverage that they have as the executive branch of the US government?
Wouldn't be the first time Saudi Arabia said one thing and did another.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:45PM
Gas production is now back up. (above pre-pandemic levels) [eia.gov]
And gas prices are actually falling for two months now. [bloomberg.com]
Thanks Brandon!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:53PM (2 children)
Mar 31 on that article.
So that started 3 months ago. And gas prices fell 10% starting two months ago. [washingtonpost.com] Are you sure they're not connected?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday July 21 2022, @12:39AM (1 child)
No. I'm not sure, but it seems to me that the miniscule (10 days supply released over 180 days, which is still in process) increase in supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) (~5% of total usage) isn't likely to have had much effect.
Given that oil prices [statista.com] have increased (until a few weeks ago) and remain high and gas prices [ycharts.com] have *increased* (until very recently) consistently throughout the SPR release, it seems unlikely that the SPR release has had much to do with any pricing changes. As [cbsnews.com] was [nbcnews.com] expected [reuters.com].
I suspect it's a supply and demand issue. More supply and/or less demand will lower prices and the converse will increase prices. And there's little, if anything (cf., the SPR and other countries' oil reserve releases), that the US government (or any other government, for that matter) can do -- short of price controls.
And price controls, despite certain folks calling the center-right Democrats in the US "marxists" and "socialists", aren't going to happen because despite the flabby rhetoric, pretty much everyone with *any* power in this country are right-of-center capitalists.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 21 2022, @03:25AM
The little they can do is stuff like subsidize production temporarily. That's significantly more than increasing supply by 5% for 6 months - which alone would be significant contrary to narrative.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 21 2022, @03:35AM
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:42PM (1 child)
They can't control it directly but they could go so Saudi Ariabia, for example, and demand OPEC actually CUT production thus ensuring we got into this mess in the first place!
Trump himself was bragging about this OPEC production REDUCTION deal well into the pandemic. [cepr.net]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @04:01PM
And then of course Biden does the exact opposite. Goes to Saudi Arabia and asks them to INCREASE production to lower gas prices. [reuters.com]
And then, as was the righting style at the time, suddenly it's the most terrible thing ever chock full of Obama era terrorist fist bumping!
Remind me who wants high gas prices again?
Missed opportunity though: If they'd have dusted off that glowing orb to fondle Tucker Carlson's head may have literally exploded. That would have been fun to watch.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday July 20 2022, @02:46AM (3 children)
Entitled employees who didn't want to return to the office because they felt they had a right to work from home permanently now realize it's still the employers who hold all the cards and call the shots, and are now ready to obey again.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Opportunist on Wednesday July 20 2022, @10:56AM (1 child)
17% of employees are willing to go back while 23% of employers beg them to come.
Who's holding the cards and calling the shots again?
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:32PM
And somehow this being a labor-sellers market is terrible for the laborers!
The crowbarring of doom and gloom into an article about how 75% of the respondents are happy with their move is ridiculous.
Hell, inflation itself is a pretty good indicator that these folks have a bit of EXTRA money lying around to spend at the end of the month. Oh the HORROR!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:30PM
Some jobs just don't need to be in person. Generally, they have been, because middle management. The idea that people work better, because someone is holding their bits to the fire, is stupid. That just creates a hostile relationship and no one wins. Eventually, once productive employees become less productive and/or the entire department/company becomes less productive. Due to high turnover.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Wednesday July 20 2022, @10:54AM (1 child)
17% want to go back, while 23% of former employers want their employees back.
I read that as "employers are still more desperate than employees".
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @05:33PM
It is a labor-sellers market currently.
Politics aside if you are currently unhappy with your employer you should definitely be looking for a job right now!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 20 2022, @03:34PM
Nobody has ever wanted more money before!
Clearly this is all the fault of Bidenflation!
(fuck, maybe I shouldn't be giving those numbnuts any more slogans!)