I think this is good to read. the media likes to blow things out of proportion for spectacular reasons. they want eyeballs, and they'll pretend there is a mass quitting movement if it gets clicks. they see the rise of r/antiwork and want in on those eyeballs.
it's mostly boomers retiring after a shakeup in workplace conditions and mass layoffs and rehires
also boomers dying of covid and people scared of covid refusing to work, and a lot of overwork in certain industries causing movement to different industries
In addition to boomers leaving, a lot of women have left because they worked (and many were laid off from) low paying jobs that can no longer offset the cost of childcare (which is soaring). I think a lot of young people have left as well because there's no way you could afford anything important with the work that is available to them. If they've got to work 50 hours a week to rent your own place and live on your own, why not just live at home where you don't have to work at all because your parents can provide for you?
Also hiring managers are the dumbest people alive. I know that's a podcast tier take, but I've been saying it for months so I feel vindicated. They literally do not know how to do their job the second it gets challenging because it's been easy to hire people on the promise of crumbs for the past twenty years and retention hasn't been an issue either. Now that's not the case and none of them actually know how to do their jobs. They didn't take on hiring people as a responsibility to do more work.
I don't think it's blown out of proportion, they just have no clue how to deal with a market where the worker has more power and they're dependant on them. The last time this happened was in the 50s/60s and most western countries started importing workers from abroad to push down wages. Through their own racist divide and conquer, they can't do that anymore, so they've painted themselves into a corner where all options lead to better circumstances for workers.
I don't know, but it does fit very well into the "those lazy peasants don't want to work!" narrative. Also a part of it is boomers finally retiring/dying.
Also a part of it is boomers finally retiring/dying.
they need to accelerate that shit
To be honest I think it is. Theres a general shortage of food service workers but that is only slightly worse than pre-pandemic, that shortage has been general for years now. My roommate who is a middle manager for a national commercial goods distributor is experiencing unprecedented staff turnover and absenteeism right now but her department is basically a call center, where frequent staff turnover has always been common.
A lot of these articles and op eds about shortages and turnovers are clear political hatchet jobs pitched to the press by local or national business lobbying groups, with the obvious goal of pushing for a government crackdown on labor discipline and wage suppression. I think they're deliberately hyperbolic for this reason. The severity of these shortages are certainly variable by region.
